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Avalanche kills 3 skiers
04/01/2008 17:33 - (SA)
Madrid - Three skiers were killed on Friday
after being buried by an avalanche near the Spanish resort of
Formigal in the Pyrenees, the government said.
Helicopters and a police rescue team with sniffer dogs
searched the mountainside after the avalanche occurred in an
off-piste area.
"After being buried by the avalanche, two people died during
attempts to revive them," the government's local representative
in the Aragon region said in a statement.
The first skier had been found 45 minutes after the
avalanche and the second 20 minutes later. Rescuers later found
the body of the third skier.
Police ruled out that any more skiers might be trapped.
An avalanche warning had earlier been issued for off-piste
areas at the Formigal ski centre, where heavy snow in recent
days has closed some runs, the ski centre said on its website.
The incident came at a time when Spanish resorts are usually
packed ahead of a holiday weekend just after New Year.
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