A five-year-old British boy has died after being buried alive by a snowplough at Spain’s most exclusive skiing resort.
Federico Nicholls Lopez, from North London, died after spending 11 days in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Toulouse, France.
He suffered a heart attack on February 25 after, it is thought, the snowplough moved a large amount of snow and accidentally buried him. The driver, who could face charges of manslaughter, said he had been clearing a path to a chairlift and had not noticed the child playing.
Federico was engulfed in snow for at least a minute while his father, brother and resort staff tried desperately to dig him out. The boy was taken by helicopter from Baqueira Beret in the Aran Valley in the Pyrenees to hospital in Vielha. He was then transferred to the intensive care unit at Purpan Hospital in Toulouse.
Yesterday hospital authorities said that Federico died on Tuesday after being in a coma for 11 days. A Spanish judge has opened an investigation into the death. Federico’s family and their close friends were too distraught to comment yesterday.
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Federico was the youngest son of Thomas and Ana Nicholls, both 41, who run an energy company called Energy-Future.com, which publishes guides to the energy industry. They are both directors of Silverstone Communications, a software consultancy and publisher of books about the energy industry.
Mr Nicholls is a former energy journalist and graduate of the University of Oxford while his wife, whose maiden name is Ana Lopez Lobaton, is a Spanish linguistics graduate who moved to Britain from Andalucia in 1992. They are believed still to be in Toulouse.
The couple have two other sons, Pablo and Alvaro. A YouTube video, which was taken down yesterday, showed the family on a skiing trip last year. Neighbours in Highbury described their shock yesterday and said that Federico had been a “lovely boy”.
Judge Javier Vázquez, sitting at a court in Vielha, questioned the driver of the snowplough about the accident when he appeared before the court on March 1. The driver was remanded on bail.
Baqueira Beret is the favourite ski resort of King Juan Carlos and other members of the Spanish Royal Family, who have chalets there. When David Beckham was playing for Real Madrid he took his family skiing at the resort, which is known for attracting the wealthy and famous.
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The resort’s director, Roberto Buil, said yesterday: “We would like to express our condolences to the family and will give them all the support we can following this tragic accident.”
•The husband of one of Kate Middleton’s bodyguards was killed in a freak skiing accident, an inquest was told yesterday. Michael Probert, 42, lost a ski and crashed into a wooden post in the French Alps in March 2009.
The Metropolitan Police officer had been on holiday with his wife Sergeant Emma Probert, 39, a royal protection officer.
David Pidgeon, deputy coroner for Hertfordshire, said yesterday that Mr Probert’s death was a “tragic combination of circumstances” adding that a French investigation had concluded that it would have been common sense for the post to have been padded like others in the vicinity. He recorded a verdict of accidental death.