The Japanese Police began this Monday the search for the two skiers who disappeared on a 2,100-meter-high mountain in the Nagano prefecture (central Japan) after being trapped by an avalanche the day before.
The avalanche occurred around 2:30 pm Sunday at the Tsugaike mountain resort in the town of Otari, where 13 people, from three groups and all of them foreigners, were practicing cross-country skiing, authorities said.
Eleven of them descended the mountain, nine on foot and two on a snowmobile, while two other people are still missing and the search could not be resumed until this morning due to weather conditions and other factors.
Heavy snowfall in Japan
Authorities had issued an avalanche warning for the northern Nagano region, including the town where the resort is located, and according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the region has seen heavy snowfall in recent days, with more than 100 centimeters of Accumulated snow on Sunday.
In Gunma (center), a 46-year-old man died on Sunday after being trapped in another avalanche while snowboarding with three of his friends, Japan’s state-run channel NHK reported today.
On the 28th, two avalanches occurred at the Nozawa Onsen resort, also in Nagano, leaving one dead, while in Hokkaido (north), on the 13th, a German woman died in the Kutchan municipality after also being trapped by an avalanche