Britons killed on Mont Blanc

Two British climbers, a man and a woman, were killed in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc, the Foreign Office said yesterday. A spokesman said: "They are presumed to have fallen to their deaths." The climbers were believed to have fallen on the Italian side of the mountain at around 7am local time, he added. The news was passed to the British consulate in Lyon, France.

The Italian news agency Ansa reported that the bodies had been recovered during the late morning by mountain rescue workers who were taken to the scene by helicopter.