A new avalanche struck yesterday near the Austrian village of Galtuer, where rescuers were already searching for 24 people missing after a snowslide on Tuesday killed at least 16 people.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a series of avalanches in Switzerland climbed to 10 yesterday when three more bodies were recovered. Police in the south-western canton of Valais discovered the bodies of two more people in the village of Evolene, where a weekend avalanche engulfed 10 people, most of them French tourists. Nine victims of the avalanche there have now been found, with the one person still missing presumed dead.
In eastern Europe snowstorms and floods have snarled Romanian traffic and put farmland under water, while authorities in Hungary braced themselves for heavy flooding.
In yesterday's avalanche two people were killed and Austrian television said five more were unaccounted for. The slide destroyed four houses. It struck in Valzur between Galtuer and the neighbouring ski resort of Ischgl. Three were pulled out alive from the new snowslide. One died later.
Rescuers are still searching for 24 people believed to be buried in snow after a massive avalanche struck the centre of Galtuer on Tuesday, while 18 people have so far been confirmed dead.
An army airlift operation which was launched at dawn yesterday was suspended due to renewed severe snowstorms later in the day, shortly before the new avalanche. The dead in Tuesday's avalanche, Austria's worst ever, included at least three children and one pregnant woman, rescue officials said. Those buried are believed to be mostly tourists, many of them German skiers.
By mid-afternoon yesterday some 10 people had been evacuated to hospital and were reported to be out of danger. Hopes of finding more survivors appeared slim.
The village of Galtuer, still inaccessible except for rescue services, was in shock, witnesses reached by telephone said.
Some 400 rescue workers and sniffer dogs and medical supplies are currently in the village, flown in yesterday morning from Landeck. German and US helicopters arrived to reinforce the rescue operation during the day. Part of the motorway from Innsbruck to Landeck was closed off to allow the aircraft to land.
Rescuers pointed out that victims could possibly survive in the wreckage of the houses mowed down by the snow. But according to a recent study by Innsbruck university, 70 per cent of people buried in avalanches are dead after 35 minutes, while after 130 minutes only 3 per cent are still alive.
Austrian Chancellor Mr Viktor Klima arrived in the region yesterday morning. In Vienna, a minute of silence was observed in parliament to honour the victims.
Meanwhile, snow and floodwaters submerged roads and rail lines in northern and north-western Romania. Bucharest radio said more than 20,000 hectares of land were under water and 600 houses were damaged in areas near the Hungarian border.
In Budapest, local authorities feared melting could prompt "third degree" flooding, the highest state of alert, along 238 km of the Crasna river, which flows from Romania into eastern Hungary.
About 15 people, including four children, were buried alive in an avalanche of mud and boulders when a hillside collapsed and tore through a Peruvian Amazon village, authorities in Lima said.