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Dublin: 16 °C Tuesday 21 May, 2013

Five die in Swiss mountain plunge

Five foreign climbers have been killed after falling several hundred metres to their deaths while descending Lagginhorn.

A view of the Lagginhorn
A view of the Lagginhorn

POLICE IN SWITZERLAND say five foreign climbers have died in a mountain accident in Switzerland near the Italian border.

Officials in the southern Valais region of Switzerland said the mountaineers successfully reached the 4,010-metre high Lagginhorn summit on Tuesday but plunged more than several hundred metres to their deaths after beginning to descend.

A sixth member of the group who had stopped before reaching the summit immediately alerted rescue authorities, but the five climbers died on the spot.

Police had no immediate information on the cause of the accident.

Details on the victims’ identities and their nationalities were not immediately available. Prosecutors have opened an investigation.

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