At least five people were killed in avalanches in the Austrian and Swiss Alps, according to authorities on Saturday.
Three of the dead were killed while visiting the Austrian Alps.
Officials in the Austrian state of Tyrol are urgently warning tourists, skiers, and other winter sports athletes to avoid the slopes amid major avalanche risks.
A winter sports enthusiast was found dead in Kaltenbach on Saturday. The Austrian news agency, APA, quoted police as saying the victim was a 17-year-old from New Zealand who had been skiing off-piste.
A 32-year-old Chinese national was killed in an avalanche in the area on Friday. A 15-year-old boy was also badly injured after being dragged away by an avalanche.
A third victim, a man in his 50s, was found dead after being reported missing on Friday in the Kleinwalsertal valley on Austria's border with Germany.
Authorities in the Swiss canton of Graubünden said two skiers died off-piste. A third member of the group managed to escape. Among the dead were a 56-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man.
Authorities were able to locate them using signals from emergency locator transceivers.
By Saturday afternoon, authorities at the Tyrolean Control Center said they had recorded 17 avalanches. Nine of them were said to have influenced people.
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