An avalanche alert forced the evacuation of more than 30 homes in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where world leaders are gathering for the annual World Economic Forum.
Thousands of people were stranded across the Alps and many popular ski resorts were in lockdown, with hundreds of buildings evacuated and tourists told to stay indoors because of the avalanche risk.
Storms and heavy snowfall have battered the region over the past two days, adding more than two metres of snow to already “historic” levels, severing train lines and closing roads in France, Austria and Switzerland.
Zermatt in Switzerland was cut off for the second time this year, with 9,000 people stranded after an avalanche swept over its only road and railway.
In Austria about 10,000 people were stuck in the Paznaun valley, which includes the popular resorts of Ischgl and Galtur, where the avalanche risk is at maximum. Last night access to the resort of St Anton was also cut off.
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In Chamonix in France more than 100 chalets were evacuated. “The situation is extraordinary. We’ve had the equivalent of five months of precipitation in 45 days,” Eric Fournier, mayor of Chamonix, said. “Since becoming mayor in 2008, it’s the first time I’ve had to order evacuation measures.”
In Davos, where politicians and business tycoons were beginning to gather last night for the forum, the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research put the risk at four out of five.
Two Swiss skiers were killed in an avalanche in the Bernese Oberland region on Sunday and a 30-year-old German skier was engulfed in the Bavarian Alps. He was quickly pulled out of the snow but later died in hospital.
“The situation will remain very dangerous until at least Tuesday,” a police spokesman in Valais, Switzerland, said.