text: More than 40 injured after avalanche struck while students were climbing near Nasu Onsen ski resort north of Tokyo 
   
   Seven high school students and a teacher have died and more than 40 people have been injured after an avalanche hit ski slopes in Japan. 
   
   A total of 52 students and 11 teachers from seven high schools were taking part in a three-day mountaineering expedition near the Nasu Onsen resort, 93 miles (150km) north of Tokyo, when the incident occurred at about 9.20am (00.20am GMT) on Monday. 
   
   Seven students and one teacher were found with no vital signs, rescue officials said. Of the many others who were injured, two students were believed to be in a serious condition. 
   
   “I cannot have peace of mind until I see the students’ faces,” the deputy headteacher of one of the affected schools told the Yomiuri newspaper. 
   
   
   
   Japan’s self-defence force was asked to help with the disaster response, which was at times hampered by weather conditions. The prime minister, Shinzō Abe, said the government would ensure the rescue was a top priority. 
   
   The avalanche followed heavy snowfall overnight. More than 1ft (30cm) of snow accumulated in the Nasu highlands between midnight and 9am, according to Japan Meteorological Agency data. 
   
   One unidentified student told the broadcaster NHK by telephone that there was a strong wind and he could see a white mass heading towards him. An instructor said to get down and then everyone was engulfed, he said. 
   
   As the scale of the tragedy came to light, questions were raised about whether it could have been prevented. A police inquiry has been opened, the Kyodo news agency reported. 
   
   Official avalanche advisories were in force in the area at the time. It is understood that climbing was stopped on the final day due to bad weather and the students instead participated in an exercise to wade through deep snow. 
   
   The head of the high school athletics league that organised the course, Kenichi Hashimoto, said he had respected the assessment of the experienced teachers who were on the scene. He conceded that “a stronger crisis management system was necessary”. 
   
   “Naturally, I would like to express my sympathies from the bottom of my heart,” Hashimoto told reporters at a press conference on Monday evening. 
   
   Robert Speta, a meteorologist for NHK World, said Tochigi prefecture had experienced an increase in unusual snow in recent days despite it being late March. This snow combined with rising temperatures increased the avalanche risk, he said. 
   
   “Typically it tapers off in late March, the snowpack settles and it’s OK for climbing and off-piste skiing, but just recently we had this big spike in the snow depth,” Speta said. 
   
   “We had heavy snow that condensed [with the warmer weather] and then once you have somebody on top of that, that creates a trigger. These are all a recipe for avalanche creation.” 
   
   The Nasu Onsen family ski resort, which has two lifts and one rope-tow, ended its ski season on 20 March. 
   
   
   
   The climbing trip reportedly began on Saturday and involved students from seven high schools along with instructors. Monday’s activities had been due to end about two-and-a-half hours after the avalanche struck. 
   
   In a separate incident in neighbouring Fukushima prefecture, a 70-year-old man was found unconscious after an avalanche on Monday afternoon. He had been climbing Mount Adatara with a 64-year-old man who was unhurt, NHK reported. 
   
   ||||| Seven students and one teacher from Otawara High School in Tochigi Prefecture died Monday after being caught in an avalanche at a ski resort during a climbing event in the town of Nasu, an official with the Tochigi Prefectural Police said. 
   
   The police official said 40 people were injured, adding that the department received an emergency call alerting it to the avalanche at Nasuonsen Family Ski Resort at around 9:20 a.m. 
   
   The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m., as 40 students and eight teachers were training to walk in the accumulated snow. 
   
   The town of Nasu received 33 cm of snow over an eight-hour period through 9 a.m. as of Monday morning, and avalanche warnings were in effect. 
   
   The ski resort concluded operations for the season last week. 
   
   The police are looking into whether the deaths resulted from professional negligence given the extreme conditions at the time the training was being conducted. 
   
   The Tochigi education board said 51 students in mountaineering clubs and 11 teachers from seven high schools were participating in the climbing lesson event that began on Saturday. 
   
   The board also said the students were scheduled to ascend the mountain on Monday, but the climb was canceled due to the heavy snow. Instead, the group practiced walking in the accumulated snow. 
   
   The training took place about 500 meters from their hotel at an altitude of 1,300 meters. 
   
   The avalanche occurred on the upper part of the slope. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rescue workers have tried to negotiate the snow-covered slopes 
   
   Seven Japanese high school students and their teacher have been killed in an avalanche at a ski resort. 
   
   The avalanche occurred early on Monday near Nasu in Tochigi prefecture, 120km (75 miles) north of Tokyo. 
   
   Another 40 people, mostly students, were hurt including two who were in a critical condition, reports said. 
   
   The victims were part of a 70-strong group from several schools who were on a three-day mountain climbing training trip. 
   
   Dozens of troops were involved in rescue efforts, amid bad weather and heavy snowfall. 
   
   Image copyright AFP 
   
   "All the people have been carried down from the mountain and they are now being transported to hospital," a prefecture official told AFP news agency. 
   
   Officials said the eight victims had no vital signs. In Japan, rescue officials wait for a doctor at a hospital to pronounce victims dead instead of doing it at the scene. 
   
   The region had received heavy snow over the past two days and avalanche warnings had been in effect. 
   
   "We have avalanche incidents once or twice a year around here, but haven't had anything this big," a fire department official told Reuters news agency. 
   
   Another official told Reuters that there would be an investigation into why the group were out during an avalanche alert. 
   
   The area around the town of Nasu has several ski resorts, but these had closed for the season. The area had seen more than 30cm of fresh snow since Sunday and recent warm weather had further raised the avalanche risk.
target: – What started as a snow-filled trip for seven schools in Japan has ended in tragedy. The BBC reports that eight high school students are believed to have been killed in an avalanche that hit a ski resort 90 miles north of Tokyo on Monday. Some 70 students and teachers were believed to have been present, with about half those who survived suffering injuries. The incident occurred near Nasu, which has seen about a foot of snow fall since Sunday. That snow "condensed [with the warmer weather], and then once you have somebody on top of that, that creates a trigger," a meteorologist tells the Guardian. "These are all a recipe for avalanche creation." Indeed, an avalanche warning was in effect at the time. The Japan Times and Guardian report the ski season had closed last week at the Nasuonsen Family Ski Resort; the students who arrived Saturday were about two-and-a-half hours away from the conclusion of Monday's climbing event when the avalanche struck near the upper part of the slope. NBC News specifies that the weekend event was a "mountain climbing safety training exercise."