Three killed in Slovenian Alps avalanches

LJUBLJANA — Three people died and three were injured Saturday by two avalanches in northern Slovenia, local police said.

The first avalanche in the morning on the northern side of Storzic mountain, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ljubljana, killed two mountaineers, the local Rescue and Protection Centre reported on its website.

“During the rescue operation, a secondary slide happened pulling down another two mountaineers that were in the area, one of them died at the spot and the other was injured,” police spokesman Robert Kralj told journalists.

During the second avalanche two members of the retrieval team were also injured, Kralj said adding all three injured were evacuated by an army helicopter.

Local authorities had warned that due to low temperatures and strong winds the risk of avalanches in the Kamnisko-Savinsjki Alps region was very high.