SIX people were swept to their deaths and another is still missing after a devastating avalanche in the French Alps on Sunday.
The victims were tragically caught up in the snow as it tumbled down the Armancette glacier near Mont Blanc in south-eastern France.
The snowslide, with a reported height of 1,600m and a width of 500m, ploughed into skiers shortly before 11.30am.
Authorities said "three groups of skiers" each "supervised by one or two mountain guides" were caught up in the deadly avalanche.
Rescue teams rushed to scour the area after the victims were completely engulfed by the white stuff, sparking a frantic search.
Two mountain guides were among the dead after the tragedy on Easter Sunday close to the town of Contamines-Montjoie.
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The Haute-Savoie department said the guides from the Saint Gervais company, aged 39 and 49, were submerged underneath the thick snow.
The avalanche – one of the deadliest in France in recent years – also killed four visitors while injuring nearly a dozen others.
This includes a 24-year-old woman from Beaufortain, a couple in their forties from the suburbs of Lyon and a 25-year-old man from Lille.
Authorities then found the body of a 39-year-old woman on Sunday evening – but couldn't locate her missing spouse in the Alps.
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Rescue operations continued into Monday as teams tried to track down the missing man on the popular mountain trail, before the body of a 42-year-old was then discovered.
The couple are believed to have been holidaying from Lyon, according to Le Parisien.
"The search will start again this morning to find the spouse visibly of this person", Elisabeth Mollard, first assistant of Contamines-Montjoie, said earlier.
One person also suffered slight injuries in the avalanche while eight others also swept up were unharmed, officials said.
Reports said the search and rescue operation, which was hampered on Sunday due to safety fears, has now ceased.
Emergency responders had deployed a helicopter as well as mountain rescue dogs to the scene, although the prefecture warned a further avalanche could not be ruled out.
One boss from the Chamonix High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon (PGHM) told how teams battled against the elements for as long as possible.
ALPS TRAGEDY
They said: "Yesterday we finished quite late, we had reduced the device because there were objective dangers of avalanches in the area.
"We still managed with digital means to find the phone of one of the victims and to extract a fifth victim of the avalanche, who unfortunately died.
"It is an accident which is not unprecedented but which is nevertheless exceptional in its scale and in the number of victims.
"An avalanche like this happens once every ten years."
The avalanche covered a massive area of 1,000 metres by 500 metres, as photos show the snow rumbling down the mountain.
No avalanche warning had been issued for the region by weather authority Meteo France, but a combination of warmth and wind may have been behind the disaster, the prefecture added.
Stéphane Bornet, the director of Anena (National Association for Snow and Avalanche Studies), said that the sporadic snowfall in the region may have created a snowpack "presenting both solid layers and weak layers".
I think it's the most deadly avalanche this season.
President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter: "We're thinking of (the victims) as well as of their families."
"Our emergency services have been mobilised to find those still trapped in the snow."
Contamines-Montjoie mayor Francois Barbier told AFP: "I think it's the most deadly avalanche this season."
The glacier is described as "relatively popular with experienced hikers" and skiers.
Two brothers died in an avalanche on the same glacier in 2014, both experienced climbers in their 20s.
Last month, a British teenager was killed by an avalanche while on a ski tour in Switzerland.
The 18-year-old man was found dead after he was swept away by the avalanche in Meiringen, Bern.
Earlier this week, a massive avalanche left 150 people trapped after knocking a full bus into a gorge.
The Indian army said the avalanche smashed into Nathu La, a popular tourist destination between Sikkim and the Chinese region of Tibet.
At least 30 trapped tourists were pulled out and rushed to hospital, while around 350 people and 80 vehicles were stranded after snow blocked the roads, Times of India reports.
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