Four people were injured in an avalanche in Austria which triggered a major search on Sunday December 25 to find a dozen winter sports enthusiasts, police said on Monday December 26. The incident occurred around 3:00 p.m. local time at around 2,700 meters above sea level, in the Lech Zürz ski area in the Vorarlberg region (west).
The police, based on the video of a witness “who accidentally filmed the avalanche with his phone“, initially reported”of a dozen people buried“. In this group “lying in the area of the avalanche path», «a man could be saved“. “Seriously injured“, According to a press release published in the night, he was taken to hospital in Innsbruck.
200 people mobilized
“It was not until the evening that the other people appearing on the video came forward“, said the police. They were able to return to the station on their own. Three were injured. No information was given on their identity.
Up to 200 people, supported by helicopters, were mobilized for several hours to take part in the search operations.
Rescuers had warned this weekend against a high danger of avalanche in this area as well as in neighboring Tyrol, pointing to the fragility of the snowpack in a context of mild weather. In recent years, in Austria, snowslides have caused an annual average of around twenty deaths.