
British man, 27, killed by avalanche in French Alps
A British man has died after he was buried by an avalanche at a ski resort in the French Alps, local officials have said.The man, 27, was near the roadside at the Val Thorens resort when he was swept up and carried 15 metres (50ft) by snow on Thursday morning, a local prosecutor said. The Briton, who has not yet been named, had already gone into cardiac arrest when police officers arrived at the scene to pull him out of the snow. He was taken to a hospital in Grenoble, in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, where he died later that evening.
Heavy snow blocks Alpine resorts in Switzerland and France
His family is being supported by local services, the prosecutor added, and an investigation into the incident has been launched. A spokesperson for the UK's foreign office said: "We supporting the family of a British man who died in France and are in contact with the local authorities."Heavy snow has hit the Alps in recent days, with thousands of homes in the Savoie region of eastern France left without power.On Thursday, road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais and tourists and residents were told to stay indoors in the French resort of Tignes.Tignes Mayor Serge Revial said there was a high risk of avalanches and that a decision had to be made "to protect people".South of Zermatt, power outages were reported in 37 of the 74 municipalities in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, and a bridge collapsed in Biella in nearby Piedmont.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


ITV News
a day ago
- ITV News
'In 40 seconds, everything was gone': The Swiss village destroyed by climate change
Sometimes climate change is hard to visualise, but not the disaster that struck the Swiss alpine village of Blatten on May 28. In the middle of the afternoon a glacier that had stood above the village for centuries broke free from the mountainside and crashed down onto Blatten. The Swiss authorities had seen in coming and evacuated the inhabitants 10 days earlier – only one person is missing, which is both miraculous and a tribute to Swiss engineering. But the 300 people who lived there lost everything. Daniel Ritler had lived all his life in Blatten. The restaurant and delicatessen he ran with his wife Karin now lie under millions of tons of rock and mud, themselves invisible under millions of gallons of water. 'The whole thing happened within 40 seconds. In 40 seconds, everything was gone. Houses that were built in 15 and 16 centuries were buried, all buried', he told me. The sheep Daniel kept in the pristine alpine pastures above the village also survived, but whether they or the Ritlers will even be able to return is uncertain, perhaps even unlikely. First the geology of the Lotschental valley must stabilise, and that itself could take many years. This disaster was not caused solely by climate change – erosion and minor earthquakes in these mountains also played their part – but there's little doubt that without the significant warming the Alps have seen in the last few decades it wouldn't have happened. On current trends, glaciologists confidently predict that by the end of his century, 2100, there will be no more glaciers in Switzerland. This doesn't just mean a lot of melt-water: the ice in a glacier binds together huge quantities of mud and scree and rock, so when the ice melts much more than water comes down a mountainside. Professor Stuart Lane, a British glaciologist who lives in these mountains, and teaches at the University of Lausanne, says that as good as Swiss engineering may be, you cannot engineer away a problem as big as the one that hit Blatten. Indeed, difficult decisions may have to be taken about moving whole towns or villages out of the way of collapsing valley walls. 'The only way you can get a glacier back is by increasing snow in winter and reducing ice melt in summer', he said. 'So only with a reversion to the climate of 50-60 years ago will you see glaciers come back again'. And you don't have to be a top scientist to know how unlikely that is.


Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
Huge blackout hits Brit holiday hotspot leaving tens of thousands without power after ‘turbine failed'
More than 50,000 people have been left without power POWER CUT Huge blackout hits Brit holiday hotspot leaving tens of thousands without power after 'turbine failed' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MASSIVE power outage has left a British holiday hotspot completely dark. Outages began around 5:30pm and were first detected in homes and offices on the island of La Palma. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 The entire island was left dark by the outage Credit: Getty The isle was left completely dark by the massive outage with tens of thousands of residents left without power. It is thought the outage was caused by the tripping of a generating turbine. An estimated 50,289 users across the island have been affected by the huge blackout. Previous outages have hit the island's major cities with the biggest, Los Llanos de Aridane, left dark in recent months. Desperate restoration efforts are underway on the island with authorities scrambling to fix the issue. Authorities have instructed residents to stay calm as they work to restore power to the island. It comes after a series of blackouts have hit the island in recent months. Santa Cruze de Palma, Los Llanos de Aridane and El Paso have all experienced recent power outages. The latest of these, on May 8, left the power out for hours and affected several of the eight municipalities in La Palma. Today's outage has been the worst of the recent blackouts with power out across the whole island and tens of thousands of users affected. The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres said: "I send all my support to the people of La Palma." He went on to promise that power would be restored as soon as possible.


Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Terrifying moment lightning bolt strikes trees just metres from girl, 6, sending screaming kids scrambling for shelter
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THIS is the terrifying moment a lightning bolt strikes just meters behind an unsuspecting six-year-old girl. The mammoth bolt struck trees in Southern California, as a shocked mom and her two kids dashed for cover. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 The moment the lightning bolt hits the trees on the opposite side of the street 3 A return stroke flashes before the mom and kids even have time to react Credit: Tiffanie Buckner via Storyful 3 Stunned, the two children bolt for cover Credit: Tiffanie Buckner via Storyful Tiffanie Buckner was filming the approaching storm before heading inside with her children on Tuesday. In the shocking video, Penelope, 6, is seen nonchalantly standing in front of the camera. Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt strikes trees in the yard of the house across the street. Penelope, her mom and brother let out an instant scream. The startled children can be seen sprinting towards their mom. Buckner told Storyful: 'It was different than the normal lightning we receive that just lights up the sky.' She explained that she had wanted to show her mother and husband the weather. But what started off as innocent weather-watching, soon took a more sinister turn. 'The sound was so loud and immediate that it made us all jump and sent the kids in running," Buckner said. Though shaken at first, Penelope apparently quickly forgot the scare and even asked to go back outside once the rain began. Lightning strikes a British family-of-four living on a boat - 'There was a big flash of white light. It was everywhere, it was like we were inside it' Her mom said: 'Of course, the answer was no. 'But kids were OK and loved the storm and have an amazing story to tell.' Penelope told local news station NBC 4: 'It was amazing, but it scared me a little bit." The strike hit a tree in the yard of the family's neighbor Keith Fulthorp. 'It was loud, shook the house. Like an earthquake," he told NBC 4. His daughter Alena said: 'We just felt like the whole house shaking.' Both trees struck caught fire, but luckily the rain quickly put it out, Fulthorp said. One tree was split down the middle, while the other suffered serious damage, he added. Thunderstorms are rare in Southern California, with fewer than 10 days a year seeing reported lightning. The violent weather phenomenon is more common in England - with lightning reported on dozens of days each year, especially during summer months. Just last month, a house in Chichester, England caught fire after a lightning strike during sweeping thunderstorms across the country. Shocking photos show smoke streaming from the roof of the property. Six fire engines were called to the scene, according to West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.