PARIS (Sputnik) — The victims, a group of nine foreign tourists, were swept away earlier in the day in the Ecrins National Park. The people were not immediately freed from the snow captivity.
The rescue teams were sent to the scene along with sniffer dogs to search for the people under the snow.
The nationalities of the tourists have not been revealed yet though the German radio RTL said that German tourists were among the victims. This information has not been confirmed yet.
The avalanche risk in the area was between 2 and 3, which means "considerable", according to the European avalanche danger scale.
