Two dead in separate avalanches

Snow slides have claimed the lives of two people over the weekend. On Sunday an alpine skier was killed in the Jeseník Mountains when skiing in a declared avalanche area. On Saturday, a 13-year-old boy was killed when a cornice collapsed in a quarry where he and a friend were playing. The latter managed to free himself and lead rescue services to the location, but they were unable to resuscitate the buried boy. Local authorities in the boys’ village of Měděnec say that children often play in the quarry and that they are considering how to better secure the area. Avalanche warnings have been issued in the mountainous areas of the Czech Republic in recent days due to the combination of strong winds, fresh snow and relatively high daytime temperatures.