Tragically, an avalanche buried a 12-year-old boy who was skiing off-piste with his family.
The scary incident happened today at 1 pm at the Sportgastein ski resort in Austria.
Ten mountain rescuers, three dog handlers, a rescue helicopter and a police helicopter team reached the spot.
The boy was pulled from under the snow before doctors performed 40 minutes of CPR to revive him.
Sadly, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The boy from the Czech Republic was skiing with his family, who had come to the resort for a holiday on Sunday, when the accident occurred.
helicopter disaster
Helicopter crashes after becoming entangled in ski lift cables
Gerhard Kremser, district head of the mountain rescue service in Pongau, said, “The 12-year-old and another boy were skiing down a steep slope between avalanche barriers.”
Kremser said the pair “triggered an avalanche” between the steel beams.
Suddenly the 12-year-old boy got stuck in a layer of ice and collided with an obstacle.
This terrible accident happened about 100 metres above the Goldbergbahn middle station.
The boy’s family was evacuated to the valley by police helicopter Libelle.
Officials said he is currently being cared for by a crisis intervention team.
Alpine police are investigating the incident.
The incident comes just days after a tourist froze to death in Bad Gastein, a ski town near Austria’s Gastein Valley.
The 55-year-old Danish man was discovered by mountain rescue teams on the edge of a waterfall on Sunday afternoon after he was reported missing the previous evening.
He was last seen by friends around 10 pm on Saturday night, but he did not return to his residence.
Police, a search helicopter and mountain rescue teams swept across the area in a major operation to bring the situation under control for the missing man.
His body was found frozen in the snow on the riverbank step far away from the gushing drop of the waterfall.
Mountain Rescue received seven other call-outs that day due to the cold conditions.
District leader Gerhard Kremser said, “These include avalanches, injured off-piste skiers, stranded persons in alpine terrain and large-scale search operations with tragic, fatal consequences.”
He described it as one of the most intense days of the winter season in Pongau.
