Five skiers found dead on Swiss mountain near Zermatt

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(Reuters) -Five skiers have been found dead on a Swiss mountain close to the luxury ski resort of Zermatt, after emergency services were alerted to some abandoned skis at 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), the prosecutors’ office in Canton Valais said on Sunday.

Skiers notified the authorities on Saturday afternoon about the skis found on the slopes of the Rimpfischhorn mountain, east of Zermatt and south of the village of Saas Fee.

Rescue workers found the bodies near the Adlergletscher glacier after air and ground searches in the area in southwest Switzerland near the border with Italy, the prosecutor’s office said.

Local airline Air Zermatt said that three of the bodies were found on the debris of an avalanche a few hundred metres below where the skis were spotted. The other two were discovered higher up the 4,199 metre-high mountain, it added.

The airline’s aircraft are deployed for search missions and other emergencies.

The identities of the five have not been established yet, and an investigation has been launched into what caused the accident, Valais prosecutors said in a statement.

Zermatt is one of Switzerland’s premier Alpine resorts, visited by affluent British and other European skiers.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Clelia Oziel)