An avalanche has killed at least five people in Austria, police were quoted as saying by the Austrian news agency APA. Rescue teams were alerted Thursday by a mobile phone call from a survivor who managed to free himself after hours trapped in the snow in the Zittertal valley, in the Tirol region in the west of the country, according to dpa. The man, from the southern German region of Bavaria, was airlifted to hospital. His friend, also from Bavaria, was found dead at the scene along with at least four others from the party. They were on an expedition to the 2,244-metre-high Sontagskoepfl peak, a route not considered particularly dangerous or usually at risk of avalanches. Eight people have died in Austrian avalanches in the last week, said APA, and experts had been warning of a heightened risk in the Tirol region since Wednesday.
