Five skiers were killed in two separate avalanches in the French Alps on Wednesday, local officials have confirmed. One torrent of snow came in Val-Cenis, in the south-eastern Savoie region, killing four Norwegian skiers, while a Swiss skier died further north in the Haute-Savoie region, near Chamonix.

A 27-year-old ski tourer has died in the hospital in Sion, in southwestern Switzerland, after being caught in an <a target=_blank href=

An avalanche in the French Alps on Wednesday killed four Norwegian skiers swept away by the off-piste torrent of snow and ice, officials in the southeastern Savoie region told AFP.

Four Norwegians and a Swiss woman were reportedly killed in avalanches while skiing off-piste in the French Alps on Wednesday. The Norwegians were part of a group of seven that was swept away by an avalanche in Val-Cenis in the southeastern Savoie region near the Italian border.