Two alpine skiers from Russia's second biggest city of St. Petersburg were killed in an avalanche in the Khibiny Mountains, Murmansk region, on Thursday, St. Petersburg's department of the Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass. Its sources said a man, born in 1964, and a woman born in 1984, died at the Kukisvumchorr Pass, in the town of Kirovsk, Murmansk region. The tragedy occurred on Thursday afternoon. "Four alpine skiers from St. Petersburg disregarded the prohibitory signs going off-piste, and their down-run triggered an avalanche," the press service of the regional department said. Rescuers from a Murmansk search-and-rescue team were rushed to the site. The man and the women were found and retrieved within half-an-hour, but it was too late. According to specialists, about 40,000 cubic meters of snow went down.
