Four people were killed and several others were missing after avalanches fell upon cars near the resort of Obergurgl in the Austrian Tyrol area.
A police spokesman in the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck said a massive snow-slide crashed down a mountain pass near the popular ski resort 50 km south-west of Innsbruck in the Oetz Valley.
Four people were found dead inside a crushed car and around 100 rescuers were still digging through the snow to establish if others are buried.
The identities of the dead are not known.
Thousands of tourists were trapped in the popular ski resorts of Ischgl and Galtuer in Tyrol and Lech and Zuers in Vorarlberg after snow buried road and rail links and raised the threat of avalanches.
In February 1999, around 20,000 tourists were stranded in the same four resorts. The same month, two avalanches ripped into the heart of Galtuer and Valzur, killing 38 people in Austria's worst natural disaster in 40 years.
The local avalanche commission met this morning to discuss how to deal with the mounting snow masses after over half a metre (20 inches) of snow fell overnight.