THE death toll in an Austrian valley struck by two avalanches in two days rose to 33 yesterday, with five victims believed to be still buried, as rescuers flew out over 2,000 tourists and considered plans to evacuate as many as 10,000.
In Switzerland, an avalanche which damaged several buildings in the southern Swiss Alps yesterday was caused by a mining operation, a local crisis cell said. An investigation was opened.
Amid the grim catalogue of death and destruction, search teams were cheered by the near-miraculous rescue of a four-year-old Austrian boy, found by a sniffer dog after nearly two hours under the snow and successfully resuscitated.
In Austria, as the search continued for six victims still missing after the snowslides in the village of Galtuer and the neighbouring hamlet of Valzur, American army, German and Swiss helicopters joined the operation to airlift shocked holidaymakers.
By the end of the day, the airlift operation had evacuated some 2,400 tourists from Galtuer, and helicopters were set to work into the evening to finish the job, according to Austrian television.
But amid a continuing risk of avalanches, rescue officials said they might still offer to evacuate the whole of Paznaun valley, where some 10,000 tourists have been blocked for over a week.
"It is normal that people are keen to leave after being imprisoned by the snow for a week," said the regional police chief, Mr Erwin Koler. The main road into the valley has been closed for over a week.
Twenty-eight deaths have been confirmed in the village of Galtuer where a massive snowslide came down on Tuesday. Five have died in the neighbouring hamlet of Valzur, where an avalanche struck 24 hours later.
Victims identified include 10 Germans, six Dutch, two Danes and at least six Austrians, while four Germans are among those still missing, according to rescuers and foreign consulates.
The rescue operation was helped by an improvement in the weather. Some 30 helicopters were able to fly in and out of the valley all day from the town of Landeck at the end of the valley, where the rescue operation is based.
A surgeon at nearby Zams hospital described the rescue of the four-year-old boy, named only as Alois, as a minor miracle. An hour and 45 minutes after Alois was engulfed by Wednesday's avalanche in Valzur, a sniffer dog detected him under the tightly packed snow and rescue workers dug him out.
"The boy was clinically dead," a surgeon, Mr Alois Schranz, said. "The child was resuscitated on the spot and then flown in a state of severe hypothermia to Galtuer, despite darkness and a snow storm. The pilot risked his own life." The boy was recovering in hospital in Zams and his condition was stable. It was not known if Alois's parents were among those killed or missing in Valzur.
Evacuees arriving in Landeck were visibly relieved. "I don't want to see snow again. . . What I have experienced is horrible. I don't ever want to come back. I just want to forget," said one.
Rescue officials were meanwhile planning to evacuate other villages and towns in the valley, including the main resort, Ischgl, where some 6,000 tourists have been blocked for over a week. A spokesman in Ischgl said that its situation was not critical.
Weather forecasters warned the risk of avalanches would remain high as temperatures were likely to rise.
A snow-trekker was killed and two other people injured when two separate avalanches crashed down the French Alps yesterday, mountain police said.