Climbers buried as new avalanche strikes Japan

Japan’s fourth avalanche in two days buried three mountain climbers on a remote, icy peak today, as the country struggles through one of its snowiest winters on record.

The snow gave way on the slopes of 8,280ft Mount Ioudake in central Nagano state shortly before 10.30am local time, said Hiroshi Yamamoto, a police official from the nearby village of Chino.

Three climbers were buried and suffered broken bones, but were later pulled from the snow. Three helicopters were dispatched to airlift them from the scene, Yamamoto said.

“We plan to search to see if more people are still buried,” Yamamoto said. “It was apparently a fairly big avalanche.”

Yesterday an avalanche buried an outdoor hot spring at a popular traditional inn in the northern state of Akita, killing one person and injuring 16. A 20-year-old worker rescued almost six hours after the avalanche struck was confirmed dead on arrival at a hospital.

A separate avalanche occurred earlier yesterday near a different hot spring resort in Akita, about 280 miles north of Tokyo. A 65-year-old employee who colleagues feared had been buried in the snow was later found safe.

Later in the day, a third avalanche in the region covered a railway track, forcing a high-speed bullet train to make an emergency stop after its first few carriages smashed into the mound of snow, police said.

The train did not derail and none of the 300 passengers was injured.

Record-breaking snowfalls have hit many parts of Japan in recent months, killing at least 123 people since December in snow-related accidents.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued avalanche advisories for much of northern Japan and the central mountains of Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics and is about 110 miles north west of Tokyo.