Five people were killed and a sixth seriously injured after a climbing accident yesterday morning in the Austrian Alps, rescue services said.
The cause of the accident, which occurred below the Mannlkarscharte pass near Zell-am-See, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the central city of Salzburg, has not yet been determined.
But the six were apparently roped together when they fell at about 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) high on the mountain in a very remote area.
Five people were killed and a sixth seriously injured after a climbing accident yesterday morning in the Austrian Alps (file photo)
‘We think a rope may have come loose,’ Anton Voithofer, head of the Red Cross rescue team, said.
Five helicopters were sent to the scene, and the injured climber was transported to a hospital in Schwarzach.
The victims or their nationalities have not yet been identified.
Five helicopters were sent to the scene, and the injured climber was transported to a hospital in Schwarzach
It is believed to be the deadliest climbing accident so far this season in the Austrian Alps, where several dozen mountaineering deaths are reported each summer.
Three Italian mountain climbers also died this weekend, two of them on Sunday after falling into a crevasse in the Italian Alps.
The Italian press said one of the crevasse victims had been rescued Sunday in grave condition but later died of their injuries. It said the two who died after falling were part of nine mountaineers roped together while climbing on a glacier in the Ademello Brenta Park near Trento in northern Italy. What caused the two to fall wasn’t immediately known.
On Saturday, an Italian climber died after being hit by boulders in the Valtellina Alpine area, further west of Trento near the border with Switzerland