Image copyright EPA Image caption Rescue teams worked for hours on the mountain in search of the missing fourth victim

Four people were killed when a large avalanche swept away a ski group in the Austrian Alps, police say.

The avalanche hit the remote Jochgrubenkopf peak in the Tyrol region at about 12:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

It engulfed a group of eight foreign tourists, but four managed to free themselves and seek help, according to Austrian reports.

Three bodies were found quickly but rescuers searched for hours to find the fourth body buried deep in the snow.

Local reports said the ski group was visiting from Switzerland.

Rudi Mair from the Tyrol avalanche warning service said "tonnes of snow" had come down the 2,400m (7,800ft) mountain. The avalanche was said to have been about 700m (2,300 feet) long.

The alert level at the time had been quite low.

But Mr Mair told Austrian broadcaster ORF that the avalanche had been triggered by a small amount of fresh snow on top of several, unstable layers of old snow.

Fourteen people in Austria have died in avalanche accidents this winter, officials say.</s>At least three people have been killed in an avalanche at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps, police say.

Rescuers are looking for a fourth person missing after the avalanche hit at about 12:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

The four were said to be in a group of eight foreign tourists but managed to free themselves and seek help, according to Austrian reports.

The avalanche happened in a remote area close to the Jochgrubenkopf peak in the Tyrol in western Austria.

Rudi Mair from the Tyrol avalanche warning service said "tonnes of snow" had come down.

He described the area as "extremely steep".</s>VIENNA: Three people were killed when their ski touring group was swept away by an avalanche in western Austria, and a fourth person was missing, police in the Tyrol region said on Wednesday.

Rescuers were still hunting for the missing person in the remote area near the Jochgrubenkopf, a roughly 2,450m-high peak.

The group of eight people was using touring skis, with which one can climb and descend, making remote areas accessible.

Their nationalities were not yet known, police said.

"Four of them were able to free themselves (from the snow)," a spokeswoman for Tyrol police said. "After the search operation for the remaining four, three were found dead. The fourth person who remains unaccounted for is being sought."

The avalanche struck around 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT), she said.</s>Rescuers were working to pull the three victims off the mountainside, the Eagle County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. It said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

The avalanche occurred in the East Vail Chutes in an area that Eagle County spokeswoman Kris Friel said was beyond the boundary of the Vail ski resort, one of the largest and most well known in North America. Vail is about 75 miles west of Denver.

The fatality was a man, according to television station KUSA, an NBC affiliate.

Officials did not immediately say what activity the four people were engaged in when they were caught in the avalanche,

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said in a post on Twitter that the avalanche was large and occurred near a tree line on a slope.

The avalanche comes less than a year after five backcountry snowboarders were killed in an avalanche in April 2013 at Colorado's Loveland Pass, 48 miles west of Denver.

The avalanche danger in the Vail area on Tuesday was rated as "considerable," due to high winds and recent heavy snows, said Spencer Logan, forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

This avalanche death was the second such Colorado fatality this winter season, and the fifth nationwide, Logan said.</s>Update 5.50pm: Four mountain climbers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps, according to reports.

Update 4.50pm: Three mountain climbers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps and authorities are trying to locate a man still missing, reports said.

The Austria Press Agency, citing police, said that the climbers had been part of an eight-person group when the avalanche hit at about 12.30pm (11.30 GMT) on Wednesday.

Four of them were able to free themselves from the snow on their own and alerted rescue crews.

The avalanche came on the 2,450-metre-high (8,050ft) Jochgrubenkopf mountain, south-east of Innsbruck, and measured about 700 metres (2,300ft) long with snow depth reaching 12 metres (40ft).

Earlier: An Austrian Alps avalanche has killed three climbers, according to reports.

More as we get it.</s>Four mountain climbers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps, according to reports.

The Austria Press Agency, citing police, said the climbers were part of an eight-person ski touring group when the avalanche hit at about 12.30pm (11.30 GMT) on Wednesday.

Four people in the group were able to free themselves from the snow on their own and alerted rescue crews.

The avalanche came on the 2,450-metre-high (8,050ft) Jochgrubenkopf mountain, south-east of Innsbruck, and measured about 700 metres (2,300ft) long with snow depth reaching 12 metres (40ft).</s>The Austria Press Agency says four mountain climbers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps.

The report, citing police, says the climbers were part of an eight-person ski touring group when the avalanche hit at about 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

Four people in the group were able to free themselves from the snow on their own and alerted rescue crews.

The avalanche came on the 2,450-meter-high (8,050-foot) Jochgrubenkopf mountain, southeast of Innsbruck, and measured about 700-meters (2,300-feet) -long with the snow depth reaching 12 meters (40 feet.)</s>Austria supports targeted European Union sanctions against Ukraine over the violence in Kiev that has killed dozens of people, the Austria Press Agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying.

"Europe must not look away when people are being shot in its own backyard," Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday. "Violence must not go unpunished."

Austria's state secretary for finance also proposed freezing the Austrian bank accounts of Ukrainian oligarchs supporting those behind the violence. "That would be a political signal to support Ukraine's democratic movement," Sonja Stessl said in a written statement to APA. A finance ministry spokesman said the foreign ministry was in charge of sanctions.</s>It was a significantly harder line from neutral Austria, which until now has been reluctant to hit Russia hard with economic sanctions designed to punish what Western leaders have called unacceptable Russian behaviour.

"You cannot say we are all for freedom but the rouble has to roll," the Social Democrat chancellor told reporters after a cabinet meeting, using a German expression for money has to keep flowing.

"If it is necessary to defend freedom and international law, then Austria will be in the forefront."

Austria had been walking a careful line between showing solidarity with European Union peers and keeping the lines of communication open with Moscow, with which it has traditionally had good political and business ties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Vienna in June, when Russia's Gazprom and Austria's OMV sealed a deal to build a branch of the giant Russian South Stream gas pipeline to Austria.

Austrian lenders such as Raiffeisen Bank International and Bank Austria, the eastern European arm of Italy's UniCredit, depend heavily on Russia for profits, but Russia accounts for less than 3 percent of Austria's foreign trade.

Faymann told broadcaster ORF that Moscow's explanations of how Russian troops and tanks had entered Ukraine were "getting more and more obviously provocative. Nobody can believe this, so it is fitting to have a clear political message here."

He reiterated he was against using force against Russia and said the EU should sharpen sanctions, but the question was in which fields.

Asked about potential sanctions on gas supplies, he said:

"They are an issue but you have to know that gas supplies also have a massive effect on Europe's economy. The priority for me is political dialogue, negotiations, exerting pressure, and perhaps not delivering any more weapons."

He said he would be disturbed should the Western military alliance NATO also decide to intervene in Ukraine, adding: "I don't want to contribute anything to accelerate this military logic." (Reporting by Michael Shields and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Dominic Evans)</s>The Austria Press Agency says that three mountain climbers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps and authorities are trying to locate a man still missing.

The report, citing police, says that the climbers had been part of an eight-person group when the avalanche hit at about 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

Four of them were able to free themselves from the snow on their own and alerted rescue crews.

The avalanche came on the 2,450-meter-high (8,050-foot) Jochgrubenkopf mountain, southeast of Innsbruck, and measured about 700 meters (2,300 feet) long with snow depth reaching 12 meters (40 feet).
An avalanche kills four skiers in Tyrol, Austria.