Two Britons and one French person have died in an avalanche in the French Alps on Friday.
The British pair were part of a group of five people skiing off-piste with an instructor in the Manchet valley, near Val d’Isère, a spokeswoman for the resort told the BBC.
The French national was skiing alone when the avalanche struck at 11:30 local time (10:30 GMT), Albertville prosecutor Benoit Bachelet said in a statement announcing the deaths.
Another British person has minor injuries, he added.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told the BBC they are aware of the death of the two British men and they are “in contact with the local authorities and stand ready to offer consular assistance”.
A manslaughter investigation has now been launched by the Albertville public prosecutor’s office and will be carried out by CRS Alpes mountain rescue police.
The ski instructor, who was unharmed, tested negative after taking alcohol and drug tests, according to Bachelet.
Antoine Martignon and his wife were in La Vallée du Manchet on Friday morning, and captured the avalanche on video.
The pair had initially tried to ski in Val d’Isère, but found the slopes too crowded and decided to go for a walk.
“I was watching people free riding and skiing off-piste, and thought it looks very dangerous,” said Martignon.
“In 20 seconds there was an avalanche, it went down and took people below.”
Val d’Isère has already experienced avalanches this winter, with one person dying in the resort of Tignes nearby last month.
France’s national weather service had issued a red alert for avalanche risk across the Savoie region on Thursday, which was then lifted on Friday. But the risk level remained high across the Alps with “very unstable snow cover”.
The avalanche comes in the wake of Storm Nils, which passed through France the day before, leaving between 60cm and 100cm of snow, the weather service said.
“We have had some very complicated, very unstable snow since the beginning of the season,” Luc Nicolino, slopes manager at La Plagne, told AFP.
“It’s a kind of mille-feuille with many hidden, fragile layers.”
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