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Avalanche in Austria kills four Swiss men

Search teams work at the site after an avalanche went down at the Jochgrubenkopf mountain in the Austrian Alps Keystone

Four Swiss men were killed when their ski touring group was swept away by an avalanche in western Austria, police in the Tyrol region said on Wednesday.

Rescuers had used snow-drilling machines to try to rescue the fourth man in the remote area near the Jochgrubenkopf, a roughly 2,450-metre peak, but found him dead, buried ten metres deep in snow, Reuters reported.

The group of eight people was using touring skis, with which one can climb and descend, making remote areas accessible.

“Four of them were able to free themselves [from the snow],” a spokeswoman for Tyrol police said.

The avalanche struck at around 12:30pm local time, she said.

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