Teacher on avalanche trip suspected of involuntary manslaughter

Earlier on Thursday (Friday NZT), a French official said that the students may have skied ahead of their teacher. The ski slope was closed by a 50-meter long (164 feet) net with advisory in different languages that the group stepped over, Coquillat said.

Officials found the body of a 16-year-old girl on the slope, while a 14-year-old boy died after being transferred to a hospital.

A Romanian skier told investigators that another group above the schoolchildren, consisting of about ten people, was skiing above them just seconds before the avalanche occurred, according to Coquillat, who implored more eyewitnesses to come forward.

The avalanche hit a piste at the Deux Alpes resort in eastern France which has been closed to the public all season engulfing a group of French pupils and their teacher from the city of Lyon according to police sources.

“It needs to be remembered that skiing off-piste is not a crime and it’s not forbidden”, he added. Primarily this was because there was not enough snow, then later due to a high avalanche risk.

Bellecombes at Les Deux Alpes.

It is understood that they were skiing on a slope which was closed and that avalanche warnings had been issued in the area. There were also helicopters – some to ferry out the dead and injured, and others to aid in the search effort, including one equipped with a thermal camera, officials said. “It is in full knowledge that the group moved into this place and this closed slope”, although he admitted that probably “several hundred” others had done so on Wednesday.

Some witnesses quoted by the prosecutor said the avalanche could have been triggered by another group of skiers, tourists from Hungary and Romania, who were skiing higher up on the slope.

Outside the Lyon school dozens of candles had been lit alongside a note reading: “Thoughts with the students and pupils”.

Officials say that the risk of avalanches was rated at three on a scale of five at the time, meaning that a single skier could send a wall of snow crashing down.