Four killed in New Zealand avalanche

Four climbers were killed and two others injured in an avalanche on New Zealand’s second highest peak, Mount Tasman.

Three of the victims were killed in the avalanche and a fourth died after being airlifted off the mountain.

The avalanche occurred just before 9am local time Wednesday (7pm Irish time yesterday), said Gail Adams of Garden City Rescue Helicopter, which dispatched aircraft to the mountain.

Two of the four killed were New Zealanders and two were Australian, a police spokesman said.

Three of the victims were climbing guides. Two Swiss climbers also were caught in the avalanche, but were unhurt.

Police had imposed a no-fly zone over the 11,473.10ft peak and sent rescue teams with sniffer dogs to search for climbers, emergency officials said.

New Zealand’s second-highest peak, Mount Tasman on the South Island, is 500 miles southwest of the capital, Wellington. It is two miles north of Mount Cook and was first scaled in 1895.

Avalanches are common in New Zealand’s alpine areas, a geological expert said.

“They generally occur as the snow pack becomes unstable, particularly mid-winter onwards where there has been heavy snowfall or areas of melt or instability within the layers of snow,” said David Barrell from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.