2 killed, 9 injured in ice fall in southern Swiss Alps
May 26, 2022, 7:49 PM | Updated: May 27, 2022, 10:10 am
A view of the Grand-Combin massif, Switzerland, Friday, May 27, 2022. Swiss police say two mountaineers have been killed and nine other were injured after large chunks of glacier broke off an Alpine peak in southwest Switzerland. Regional Wallis police said seven rescue helicopters were deployed quickly after the breakage near the Grand-Combin range shortly after dawn in an area over 3,400 meters (11,100 feet) where 17 Alpinists had gathered in different groups. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
(Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
BERLIN (AP) — Two climbers were killed Friday and nine others injured by falling blocks of ice in the Alps in southern Switzerland, police said.
Police in Valais canton (state) were alerted shortly after 6 a.m. to the emergency in the Grand-Combin massif. Seven rescue helicopters were dispatched.
Seventeen climbers, in different groups, were in the area when the ice blocks broke off at an altitude of 3,400 meters (11,150 feet). Two people — a 40-year-old French woman and a 65-year-old Spanish man — died at the scene.
Police said another nine people were taken to hospitals in Sion and Lausanne, and that two of them were seriously hurt. Other climbers were evacuated by helicopter.
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