Image copyright EPA Four skiers have died in the Swiss Alps and another five are in a serious condition after bad weather forced them to spend Sunday night outdoors, police said.
The alarm was raised when the skiers failed to arrive at a mountaintop cabin more than 3,000m (9,850ft) above sea level.
Police said one was killed in a fall while three others died of hypothermia.
The dead were from France, Italy and Germany.
Local police said in a statement that 14 people had been “trapped by bad weather [and] forced to spend the night outside in the Pigne d’Arolla area”.
The group set out from the Dix rest-stop along a route known as the Serpentine. aiming to arrive at Vignettes later that night.
The manager of a cabin in Vignettes sent out a distress call early on Monday morning after they failed to arrive, and seven helicopters were dispatched as part of a search operation.
The incident follows the death last month of three Spanish cross-country skiers who were engulfed by an avalanche in the Fiescheralp area of the Swiss Alps.
On 2 April, an avalanche in the French Alps killed mountain guide and doctor Emmanuel Cauchy.