This archive photo shows a view of the city and the Chamonix ski resort (AFP)
Lyon, France:
Seven people, including two paragliders, died in a series of accidents in the French Alps while the country celebrated its Bastille vacations, rescue services said on Wednesday.
The bodies of a 40-year-old Dutchman and a 30-year-old Frenchwoman were found Tuesday afternoon near the Chapelle de la Glière, a rocky ridge in the Chamonix valley, not far from Mont Blanc.
The climbers dived from the rock face of the famous mountaineering route, although the cause of the accident was not immediately known, authorities said.
Also on Tuesday, a 71-year-old hiker was killed after falling near the summit of Mont de Grange in the French Alps near the Swiss border.
Rescue services said the bodies of two Italian climbers were spotted by helicopter on Wednesday at the foot of Mont Maudit, one of the many peaks emerging from the Mont Blanc range, which forms the border with Italy.
Experienced climbers, aged 66 and 67, had traveled from Genoa to climb the summit on its Italian side, and were descending on the French side when the accident occurred.
“It was quite cloudy along the chain. They fell on the north face for an unknown reason and fell at least 300 meters (1000 feet),” Lt. Col. Stéphane Bozon told AFP. , police chief of Chamonix.
On Tuesday evening, two 48-year-old men were killed when their paraglider crashed while flying over the village of La Chapelle-d’Abondance, just south of Lake Geneva.
The two victims, a guide and his client, dived when the wings of the paraglider suddenly collapsed, causing him to dive on the roof of a house.
Waves of climbers and tourists head to the picturesque peaks of the French Alps every summer, prompting authorities to warn that difficult routes should not be underestimated.
Last week, authorities reported the first death of the season on Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, which attracts nearly 25,000 climbers each year.
The 65-year-old man was descending when he unhooked the rope from his partner thinking that the terrain was less risky, but slipped on a coat of snow and fell 500 meters (1600 feet), have declared the emergency services.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
