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Switzerland avalanche kills off-piste skier

A mobile phone signal helps authorities to locate the Italian national 

Rebecca Flood
Friday 15 December 2017 18:48 GMT
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Avalanche training could save your life
Avalanche training could save your life (Getty)

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The body of a skier who was swept away by an avalanche has been found in Switzerland.

The 49-year-old Italian man had been skiing off-piste when he was buried under nearly five feet of snow.

Authorities were able to pinpoint him using his phone signal, and his body was recovered from a steep gully on the mountainside, almost three days after he went missing near Ovronnaz, in the canton of Valais.

He had been reported missing by his family after he went missing over the weekend.

But search teams were initially hampered bad weather and had to call off the hunt.

A helicopter equipped to pick up mobile phone signals helped to track him, The Local reported.

Swiss authorities confirmed they found a body.

In September another skier, from Hong Kong, died following an avalanche in Switzerland.

The 42-year-old man, surnamed Ng, was part of a four-person mountaineering training team in Grindelwald, a village in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps.

Coach Conway Leung Nim-ho, 61, sustained minor injuries in the avalanche and two other men escaped unhurt.

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