6 Bodies Found in French Alps

No details yet on how climbers died
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 26, 2011 1:32 PM CDT
6 Bodies Found in French Alps
French policemen hold a white sheet to hide the loading of the bodies of six mountaineers found dead in French Alps on June 26, 2011.   (AP Photo)

A hiker discovered the bodies of six mountain climbers in France's Hautes-Alpes region today, the apparent victims of an accident yesterday. Mountain police based in Briancon said the bodies were discovered in a steep corridor at 8,858 feet, a day after the climbers left an overnight Alpine refuge. Police said the group apparently was headed, on two ropes, for a point at 11,857 feet in the Massif des Ecrins. The bodies were brought to a nearby village by helicopter for identification.

"It is assumed that there was an avalanche of snow and stones," the mayor of that village tells CNN, while French police cite "a broken snow bridge, a fall, or an avalanche" as possibilities. (More Alps stories.)

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