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British man killed in avalanche in French Alps

The man was skiing off-piste in a group when the avalanche struck

British man killed in avalanche in French Alps
British man killed in French Alps avalanche and found buried eight feet under snowThe man was skiing off-piste in a group when the avalanche struck La Plagne ski resort, south eastern France, pictured in 2010AFP via Getty Images

A British man has died in an avalanche in France and was discovered by rescuers buried under eight feet of snow after nearly an hour of searching.

The man, who is thought to be in his 50s, was skiing off-piste in the French Alps, in a resort called La Plagne.

The resort said that at 1.57pm on Sunday rescuers received an alert about an avalanche. A team of about 52 people rushed to the scene.

Among the rescuers were ski school instructors, medics, and a helicopter-deployed police dog.

After 50 minutes of searching, the man was discovered buried under 2.5 metres of snow, which is about eight feet, the resort said.

He was in a group of other skiers when the avalanche hit, but he was not equipped with an avalanche transceiver and was not with a professional instructor, it added.

La Plagne said its thoughts were with the man's family.

Two other people died in separate avalanchesCourchevel and Vallorcine – across the French Alps on Sunday.