Child dead in Russian avalanche

A 10-year-old child was killed and at least three people were trapped by an avalanche at Russia's best-known ski resort today, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The avalanche was at Krasnaya Polyana, one of the ski centres that is part of Russia's bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the emergency ministry's southern district, said the avalanche swept the four people off a chairlift. An estimated 60 other people were on the lift at the time.

Krasnaya Polyana, in the Caucasus Mountains about 30 miles east of the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, is were Russian President Vladimir Putin takes an annual skiing holiday.