Two Swedish men dead in avalanche in Switzerland

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Two Swedish men have died in an avalanche in Switzerland. There is a high risk of avalanches in the area.

– What the Foreign Ministry has confirmed and knows is that two Swedish men have died in an avalanche accident in Verbier in Switzerland yesterday. The men are from Norrland and Götaland respectively, says Nina Kefi at the Foreign Ministry’s press service.

– So far we have no more information.

The accident happened last Saturday. According to local media, the men went off-piste in the area near the ski resort of Verbier. It has snowed profusely and been windy in the area, and off-piste skiing is advised against.

“Sunday and the following days will be particularly dangerous as a result of the avalanche situation. We urge caution. An avalanche took two lives last Saturday,” writes a police unit in the canton of Valais that monitors the avalanche risk.

Several avalanches have caused fatalities in the Alps during the season, where the danger of avalanches is high right now. In just a few days at the beginning of February, a total of eleven people died in the Alps. The worst affected then were the mountains in Austria, where eight people lost their lives.

Several Swedes have also died in avalanche accidents recently.

On March 9, a Swedish man in his 50s died in an avalanche in the Italian Alps.

At the end of February, a soldier employed by Norrland’s dragoon regiment, K4, died in an avalanche at Kebnekaise.

In early January, three Swedish skiers – all men in their 30s – were swept away in an avalanche in Norway. A man from Västra Götaland died and one of the men was seriously injured.