Rescuers suspended their hunt for eight climbers missing in an avalanche in the Alps, as France's interior minister warned there is "no longer any chance of finding someone alive". Michele Alliot-Marie also said there could be more people buried in the snow. The minister gave her stark verdict after she travelled to the mountains to visit injured survivors and meet with rescue services in the resort base of Chamonix. France's interior minister travelled to the mountains to visit eight survivors ? three Italians and five French ? who were pulled from the snow and for a briefing on the search for other victims, her office said. The minister described the avalanche near France's highest peak Mont Blanc as "gigantic" in scale and "without hope of escape" for the climbers. Police initially said 10 people were missing but later brought the number down to eight after two Italians turned up safe. The climbers were on the 4,250-metre high Mont-Blanc du Tacul when they were hit by a massive wall of snow around 3am local time. A mountain guide raised the alarm around 3.15am. Climbers of high mountains such as Mont-Blanc du Tacul, a site popular with hikers in the Mont Blanc range spanning France's border with Italy, often begin their ascent hours before dawn.
The avalanche, 200 metres long and 50 metres wide, struck at an altitude of 3,600 metres during what police described as "excellent" weather conditions around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. It appeared to have been caused by a block of glacier ice that broke free and rolled down the mountain, a regular event in both winter and summer in these mountains, according to locals. "It's probable, according to statements made to us, that groups of climbers roped together were on the path up the mountain as well as in the place where the block of ice tumbled down," said Eric Fournier, the mayor of nearby Chamonix.
Swiss and Austrian authorities confirmed earlier reports that three and five of their nationals respectively were among the missing. The nationalities of the other two people missing was not immediately known. Some of the eight rescued ? who were aged between 26 and 37 ? had to be dug out of deep snow, while others had managed to free themselves. All eight were slightly injured. The rescue team sent in to search for survivors included 14 mountain guides, firemen, and mountain police officers.
An Italian rescue helicopter was also sent in to back up the two French choppers involved in the hunt. Around 100 people have died in this year's summer season in accidents in the French Alps, most of them in the Mont Blanc range.
*AFP
