A British man died after being buried by an avalanche in a ski resort in the French Alps, local officials said.
The man, 27, was near the side of the road to Val Thorens Resort when he was swept away and transported 15 meters (50 feet) by snow on Thursday morning, said a local prosecutor.
The Briton, who has not yet been appointed, had already been arrested heart when police arrived on the scene to get him out of the snow.
He was taken to a hospital in Grenoble, in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, where he died later in the evening.
His family is supported by local services, added the prosecutor and an investigation into the incident was launched.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom said: “We support the family of a British man who died in France and are in contact with local authorities.”
Heavy snow has struck the Alps in recent days, with thousands of houses in the Savoie region of eastern France without power.
On Thursday, the roads and railways were cut in the Zermatt complex in the southern canton of Valais and the tourists and the residents were invited to stay inside in the French Tignes station.
The mayor of Tignes, Serge Revial, said that there was a high risk of avalanches and that a decision should be made “to protect people”.
South of Zermatt, power outages were reported in 37 of the 74 municipalities in the Aosta Valley in the northwest of Italy, and a bridge collapsed in Biella in the neighboring Piedmont.
