Three killed in Alps avalanche

Three foreign tourists – two Austrians and an Italian – have died in an avalanche in the French Alps, officials said.

A fourth tourist has been taken by helicopter to a hospital in Grenoble with unspecified injuries.

The snow slide took place in mid-afternoon in the Ecrins massif, near the town of Briancon, as a group of skiers who are all non-French nationals were travelling along a mountain, Hautes-Alpes department officials said.

Seven of the skiers are holed up in a refuge building nearby at an altitude of about 3,500 metres (11,500ft), and will stay there overnight until emergency services are able to rescue them, officials said.