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A train carrying around 80 passengers has derailed in Switzerland following an avalanche this morning, authorities said as rescuers scrambled to reach survivors.
Several carriages were forced off the line near the village of Goppenstein, in the southwestern canton of Valais, around 7am this morning, police said.
Ambulances and rescue helicopters raced to the scene as police warned injuries were “likely”.
They said just after 10am local time that 30 people have so far been evacuated from the train.
Only last week, authorities warned there was a high risk of avalanches in the canton, amid a period of heavy snowfall across the Alps.
At least four off-piste skiers, including two British citizens, have been killed in avalanches in the French Alps in recent days.
Click here for latest updates on the derailment.
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“The train derailed due to an avalanche that came down in the Stockgraben area,” a spokesperson for train company Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon (BLS) told 20 Minuten.
It was unclear whether the train was struck directly by the avalanche. Other services on the Frutigen-Brig line will be suspended until at least tomorrow, BLS said in a statement.
The train left Spiez at 6.12am and was heading southbound towards Brig at the time of the incident, it added.
The firm describes itself as “one of Switzerland’s leading transport companies”.
Swiss monitors last week warned that there was a high risk of an avalanche in Valais amid a period of heavy snowfall and harsh winds.
Valais Police said last week that an avalanche had closed the Ferden–Goppenstein–Steg road (pictured) amid heightened risk of avalanche (Police Valais)
The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) raised its threat level to four, the second highest on its scale, on 11 February.
It warned that a fresh layer of snow was settling on an older, weak layer, making avalanches more likely in many areas.
The warning was still in place across swathes of the country on 16 February.
In the midst of the European ski season, at least four skiers in the Alps have been killed by avalanches in recent days.
Two people were killed in Saint-Agnes and Motgenevre last week while off skiing off piste, authorities said. Two more off piste tourers were killed near Saint-Veran earlier this month.
At least 66 people have died in avalanches this European ski season, according to the European Avalanche Warning Services.
The organisation, which forecasts risk, says that snow avalanches claim an average of 100 lives in Europe every year.
More follows on this breaking news story…