Swiss police: 4 killed, 1 missing in avalanche

GENEVA - An avalanche buried a group of French skiers in southern Switzerland Sunday, killing four people and leaving one missing, Swiss police said.

The death toll climbed from three after one person died at a local hospital, the Swiss news agency SDA quoted police as saying. Five others were injured.

The search for the missing victim was called off for the night due to dangerous conditions, police said.

The incident happened on the 12,200-foot Mont Velan in the Pennine Alps near the Swiss-Italian border.

All members of the group of 11 on a back-country ski trip were French, nine equipped with snowshoes and two with cross-country skis.

Local police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet said earlier that at least three of the dead were buried by the avalanche.

Rescuers were alerted shortly after noon by one member of the group who was able to free himself, Bornet said. A vast search operation that included helicopters was launched.

Switzerland's National Avalanche Center warned of a "considerable" risk of snowslides in the region Saturday.

In January 2010, six people died in an avalanche in another region, Diemtigtal, and a doctor who went to help was swept away in a second avalanche.