Avalanche in Val Senales: mother, daughter and another child dead

Three people died in the avalanche that swept away a group of skiers on the Val Senales ski slope in South Tyrol: a woman and her seven-year-old daughter, and another girl, also seven. The avalanche, according to the Carabinieri who responded, broke away from the slope above at an altitude of 3100 meters and swept away, around 12:15 p.m., a group of German skiers who were on the ski slope leading down to the valley, at an altitude of 2250 meters. A very wide avalanche swept away five people. The Senales mountain rescue team, the Silandro and Prato alla Drava financial police, the Senales and Silandro ski carabinieri, and the firefighters of Madonna di Senales, Certosa, and Monte Santa Caterina responded to the scene. Rescuers first extracted an 11-year-old boy and his father, residents near Cologne, from the snow. They were both transported to the Merano hospital in serious but non-life-threatening condition. They then extracted a seven-year-old girl from the snowdrift and transported her to Trento hospital in critical condition. She died in the afternoon from her serious injuries. Rescuers also recovered two bodies from the snow: a 25-year-old woman living in a Thuringian village near Leipzig, the mother of the girl who later died in Trento hospital, and the body of another seven-year-old girl living near Cologne. According to initial reports by the Carabinieri, the girl is the daughter of another German skier who was at the scene but was not involved in the avalanche. The rescue operation has concluded, but search operations will resume tomorrow morning to confirm that no other skiers were caught in the avalanche's broad front. In addition to the one in Val Senales, two other avalanches occurred today in South Tyrol. At Punta Cervinia, in the Sarntal Alps, a fifteen-meter snow front broke off from an altitude of 2600 meters, swept away a 48-year-old skier from Trento. The man was saved by falling into a stream. He was treated for severe hypothermia but did not suffer serious injuries, and by the evening his condition was significantly improving at the hospital in Bolzano. Another avalanche occurred in the Puster Valley, near San Vigilio di Marebbe, where no one was injured.