Skiers caused an avalanche in Obertauern (Salzburg) – and simply disappeared. A major search was launched and emergency services spent hours looking for people believed to be buried. The mountain rescue service is once again addressing tourists and skiers…
The excitement was enormous, the search immense: 22 mountain rescuers, three dog teams and three Alpine Police helicopters responded to an avalanche in the Seekareck area of the Obertauern ski area on Sunday – but entirely in vain.
Popular area
The avalanche happened around 12:30 pm on one of the southern slopes, away from the slopes. The area is extremely popular with off-road riders. According to eyewitness accounts, there were four skiers traveling in this area. Only two left the cone after the avalanche.
The rescuers started looking for the suspected missing people as quickly as possible. Helicopters circled the avalanche area as mountain rescuers specifically scanned it for signals of possible buried victims. Without result! The sniffer dogs also didn’t pick up any scent. The situation was unclear for the emergency services for a long time. The length of the avalanche cone of about 150 meters and the many ski slopes made the search difficult. A missing person report at short notice was not confirmed. The mountain rescue team ended the operation around 3 p.m.
“Don’t have a bad conscience”
There is no trace of the unknown skiers. “If you cause an avalanche, please let us know as soon as possible. “You don’t have to have a bad conscience,” says Martin Koch, manager of mountain rescue operations.
For attentive “Krone” readers, the incident is reminiscent of an event from last winter: a Viennese caused a 300-meter wide avalanche on the Schmittenhöhe. He had to answer for this at the Zell am See court. The skier was sentenced to a fine of 200 euros for gross negligence and endangering physical safety.
Source: Krone
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