FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin and Dr. Ethan Greene, the Director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, explain what causes avalanches and why they often happen after snow droughts.
VASSITJÅKKO, KIRUNA, Sweden – Five people have been found, with three left injured, after an avalanche swept them away in Vassitjåkko, south of Riksgränsen in Kiruna municipality on Wednesday.
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The Swedish Police Authority reported that officials were alerted to the avalanche, with information that people might be affected, and promptly launched a mountain rescue operation, following the LSO, the Swedish law on protection against accidents.
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Mountain rescuers, led by an operation leader and accompanied by a search dog, were on site, supported by several helicopters, to carry out the mission.
Fissures from former excavation works are seen on the outskirts of the mining town of Kiruna on February 9, 2009. Sweden’s northernmost town has long known it must relocate or sink into cracks shooting toward its center from a century-old iron mine, but how to move an entire town, and its soul, is proving complicated. Tucked way up in the Lapland wilderness, Kiruna — whose mine is still booming — was founded around the world’s largest known single piece of iron ore, 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.
(OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
The Authority said around 1:42 p.m. local time, police confirmed that five people had been swept away by the avalanche and located them.
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However, the extent of the damage was still unknown, and rescue efforts continued to ensure that no one else, besides the five already located, had been swept away by the avalanche.
And the Swedish Police Authority notes that nothing suggests that more people are missing.
Authorities reported that three people had been injured and were being transported to the hospital by helicopter.
At this time, the extent of the injuries is unknown, as the situation remains a developing story.
