One dead in Swiss Alps avalanche: police

One person was killed and another injured on Sunday when an avalanche in the Swiss Alps swept away six off-piste skiers, police said.

The avalanche, estimated to have been 300 metres (nearly 1,000 feet) wide and 600 metres long, happened near the Mittelallalin summit, home to the world's highest revolving restaurant, police in the southern Swiss canton of Valais said in a statement.

The six off-piste skiers had been skiing from the Mittelallalin region towards Saas-Almagell.

Four of them managed to pull themselves out and were unharmed.

But a 36-year-old man from Valais was airlifted to hospital in Bern where he died of his injuries, and a 49-year-old man from the same region was injured and flown to a hospital in nearby Visp.

The accident is the latest in a series of deadly avalanches across the Alps.

Last month, two Italian cross-country skiers were killed in another snowslide in Valais.

Most of the accidents this season have meanwhile been on the French side of the border, where at least 15 people have died in avalanches, including six members of the French Foreign Legion who were swept away last month during a training exercise.

Five Czech skiers were also killed earlier this month in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps.