8 people in cardiac arrest after being hit by avalanche in Tochigi

March 27, 2017

NASU- Eight people are in a state of cardiac arrest after being engulfed by an avalanche at a ski resort in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, on Monday, local authorities said.

The eight include students of prefectural Otawara High School in the city of Otawara, Tochigi. The students were participating in mountaineering training at Nasu Onsen Family Ski Resort at the time.

At least eight others were injured, including two or three with serious injuries.

Around 9:20 a.m. (12:20 a.m. GMT), police received an emergency call reporting the avalanche.

The incident occurred near the ski resort’s second slope. Some 60 people, including high school students, were on the slope.

Alpine club members of seven high schools were on a three-day spring mountaineering training course through Monday, organized by the prefecture’s high school athletic federation, school sources said.

On Sunday, a meteorological observatory in Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi, issued a warning of possible avalanches in northern areas of the prefecture, including Nasu.

On Monday, Tochigi Governor Tomikazu Fukuda asked the Ground Self-Defense Force to send a rescue mission.

Nasu Onsen Family Ski Resort, located at the foot of Chausudake, a 1,915-meter mountain, has three ski slopes. According to the town of Nasu, the facility ended its main season on March 20. Jiji Press