DEUX ALPES, FRANCE — A teacher who led a group of students skiing on a closed slope before an avalanche killed two of the group is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, a French prosecutor said Thursday.
Police are waiting to speak to the teacher, who was injured in the avalanche and remains in hospital. The avalanche occurred on Wednesday afternoon in the ski resort of Les Deux Alpes in southern France.
CNN reported that the group of students had asked another teacher to take them out in the morning but had been rebuffed, before the teacher now facing charges agreed to accompany them.
The group had climbed over a safety fence erected to keep people off the slope, before the avalanche, reported CNN. A 16-year old girl and a 14-year old boy were killed in the tragedy while a Ukrainian man who was not part of the school trip also died.
Speaking to France 24, Dominique Letang, director of the National Agency for the Study of Snow and Avalanches (ANENA), described the avalanche as "a typical case of a slab of snow formed by the heavy winds in recent days."
The expert slope, which stands at an altitude of 2,500m above sea level, had been closed all season due to a lack of snow, but had received a large amount of snow in recent days, which prompted the avalanche warning, according to France 24.
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