Six killed in Austrian Alps avalanche

Six people were killed in an avalanche near the ski resort of Soelden in the Austrian Alps, media said on today quoting police and rescue services in the isolated high-altitude region.

Witnesses spotted the snowslide in the Schalfkogel mountain range on Saturday and alerted alpine rescuers but they could not reach the scene until Sunday due to bad weather.

The national news agency APA said emergency services were able to retrieve the bodies of six people, who were mountain climbers from the Czech Republic. The search had been called off, it reported.