Hopes faded yesterday of rescuing two people buried under tons of snow in France's Mont Blanc region after a huge avalanche swept away ski chalets, killing 10 French people on Tuesday.
Recent storms have dumped snow up to two metres (6.6 feet) deep in some parts of the French Alps. Swiss rescue teams were also on alert for avalanches, which they said could be triggered by rising daytime temperatures.
In the Mont Blanc region, where the biggest avalanche occurred, a wall of snow roared almost 1,000 metres down the slopes on Tuesday, destroying 17 chalets in the hamlets of Le Tour and Montroc, near Chamonix. The avalanche, travelling at more than 60 m.p.h., carried rubble as far as 400 metres away, residents said.
In places, only foundations were left, with beams, furniture, mattresses and clothing strewn over a large area. In one chalet, the foundation's concrete slab was turned up, shielding a family from certain death.
"It's as if a hurricane had swept through," a resident said.
The avalanche, the largest in the area since 1908, was so powerful that it crossed a stream and went a few dozen metres up the opposite slope, smashing chalets in an area considered as safe.
Helicopters joined the search when the weather improved but rescuers equipped with snowploughs, bulldozers and dogs said it would take days to clear the mass of snow some six metres deep and 200 metres wide.
"All the villagers are shovelling snow. We don't know if we are walking over buried people," one person told French radio.
The search for those missing, a man and a woman, was suspended at nightfall, more than 24 hours after the disaster, and would resume at daybreak despite the high risk of more avalanches. Rescuers said it was unlikely anyone trapped under the snow could have survived the cold for so long.
The huge snowfalls that led to the avalanche also claimed the life of a New Zealand snowboarder who was swept away in an out-of-bounds area in Courchevel. His body was found after 200 rescuers searched the snow for hours.
The local government said the 10 dead and the missing man and woman were all French. Among those killed were a couple and their three children aged 11 to 13, and an elderly couple and their granddaughter.
One boy aged 12 was dug out of the snow overnight hours after the avalanche and was suffering from severe exposure but hospital staff said he was recovering. Police said it was a miracle he had survived.
A small girl was also being kept in hospital but 15 other injured people were discharged, among them two Americans Mr Nathan Wallace (29), and Ms Alicia Boyes (22), as well as a 66-year-old Swiss woman.
The picturesque 1,400-metre high hamlets were packed with villagers and tourists on skiing holidays.
Snow in the area was piled more than two metres deep after the storms prompted authorities to issue the highest-level avalanche alerts.
A spokeswoman for Chamonix town hall said several other hamlets had been evacuated because of the risk of further avalanches, and about 200 people had been put up at schools and hotels.
The tunnel under Mont Blanc was reopened after snow blocked access for more than 24 hours.
In a separate incident, another avalanche buried two men in a ski station parking lot in the Maurienne region. They were quickly dug out unhurt, French radio said.
Some 500 skiers will be asked to submit to an alcohol test on the slopes of Davos, a ski resort in north-east Switzerland, the office for accident prevention (BPA) said yesterday.
BPA is compiling a study on the causes of collisions between both skiers and snowboarders.