Three killed after avalanche hits ski resort in Russian Arctic
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MOSCOW, January 9. Reuters /TASS – Three people were killed after an avalanche struck a ski resort near the Arctic city of Norilsk late on Friday, the local branch of Russia’s emergency services ministry said.
The bodies of two adults and a young child were found as part of a search and rescue mission involving 242 people and 29 vehicles, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. A 14-year-old boy was also hospitalized with frostbite.
Rescuers have found a woman, who was buried under the avalanche near the Otdelnaya Mountain ski complex near Norilsk, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry reported.
“They have found a young woman, not a boy. She was slight built and mistaken for a teenager. She was handed over to doctors,” the Emergencies Ministry said.
Earlier, the press service of the head office of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the region told reporters that the rescuers had found a teenager from under the snow.
Six buildings remain under snow after an avalanche collapsed in the area of Gora Otdelnaya ski resort in Norilsk, a source in press service of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry told TASS.
An avalanche collapsed in the area of Gora Otdelnaya ski resort in Norilsk at 8:30 pm Moscow time. Five houses with preliminarily five people, including two kids, were snowed in. A source in press service of the regional office of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said later that people could have only been in one out of five avalanched houses. A source in emergency services told TASS that a family with kids was staying in it.
“They have found a young woman, not a boy. She was slight built and mistaken for a teenager. She was handed over to doctors,” the Emergencies Ministry said.
The Investigative Committee added that it had opened a criminal case into deaths by negligence as a result of safety violations.
On Instagram Saturday morning the emergencies ministry branch in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, which includes Norilsk, said all of the missing people had been found and it was ending the search and rescue mission.
