Six climbers were found dead on Mont Blanc yesterday after they fell about 400 metres in the latest incident on western Europe’s highest mountain this summer.
The victims were four French men and a woman on a climbing holiday in the Alps and their guide.
They were taking part in a trip organised by the French Union of Open Air Sports Centres.
The group had left at 4am on Tuesday and were expected back that afternoon.
The bodies of the climbers were found yesterday in a crevasse at a height of about 3,500 metres.
It was not clear whether the climbers, who were roped together, had slipped while they were roped together, or had been caught in an avalanche, according to The Times.
Their deaths follow criticism from local authorities that ill-equipped tourists have been taking increasing and unnecessary risks on Mont Blanc.
Six climbers died on Mont Blanc in July, including two Irish men.
Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of the nearby town of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, warned last month that a growing number of climbers were unprepared for the dangers of the mountain.
He spoke out after an American father tried to take his two children, aged nine and 11, up Mont Blanc to try to get them into Guinness World Records.