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Vienna - A Finnish skier died on Sunday after having been buried for two and a half hours under an avalanche in the central Salzburg province, rescue services personnel said.
The 29-year-old tourist had been resuscitated twice and was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in Zell am See but finally succumbed to injuries, likely caused by the prolonged lack of oxygen, the rescue personnel said.
He was skiing off-piste near Neukirchen am Grossvenediger with a brother and friend, when the accident happened. The other two were not injured.
Although equipped with an avalanche beeper, the skier spent about two and a half hours buried under the snow before he was dug out.
Mountain rescue services organised a massive operation of 60 people including doctors and alpine police, but the large number of avalanches that have come down in the same area hampered their progress.
About a dozen people have been caught in avalanches across Austria in the past few days as warmer temperatures following heavy snowfall have prompted authorities to raise the avalanche alert level.
On Sunday, it still stood at three on the five-step scale.
That was one step down from its standing on Friday, when a son of Dutch Queen Beatrix, Prince Johan Friso, was seriously injured after he was buried in an avalanche.
He was skiing off-piste, near the upscale ski resort of Lech in western Austria. - Sapa-AFP
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