A memorial service is taking place today in the French resort of Chamonix for the climbers killed in an avalanche in the French Alps.

Two more Britons killed in a major avalanche in the French Alps were named by the Foreign Office today.

The mountaineering world has led tributes to one of the UK’s most respected climbers after he was killed alongside two other Britons in a devastating avalanche.

A climber trying to scale Mont Blanc may have accidentally caused a slab of ice to snap off high in the French Alps, sparking an avalanche which swept nine European climbers to their deaths, authorities said.