'Two missing' in Cairngorms avalanche

 
Avalanche Cairngorms
Pa14 February 2013

A number of people have been caught up in an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands and two are "possibly unaccounted for", Northern Constabulary said.

The avalanche was reported shortly after 12.30pm in the Chalamain Gap area of the Cairngorms.

Police are being assisted by members of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, search and rescue dogs, RAF Lossiemouth's mountain rescue team and a helicopter.

A force spokesman said: "Police can confirm a number of people were caught up in the avalanche. There are possibly three people unaccounted for. Searches are continuing in the area."

The number was revised down to two after one man was airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Search teams are continuing their hunt for two other people, police said.

Earlier this week a hillwalker died during an expedition with a mountaineering club in the Cairngorms.

Graham Connell, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, was found dead in the Jacob's Ladder area on Monday, following a large-scale search for him and five other people who were reported overdue on Sunday afternoon.

The other members in the party, who were unhurt, were picked up by an RAF rescue helicopter after being located by Braemar Mountain Rescue Team on a hill near Carn Tarsuinn.

The search, co-ordinated by Northern Constabulary and Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, involved more than 100 people.

The walkers were part of a larger group of 35 people visiting the Highlands.

In a separate incident earlier this month, three men survived falling 150 metres in an avalanche in the Coire an t-Sneachda area of the Cairngorms.

The men, who were wearing helmets, were airlifted to hospital with leg injuries.

The avalanche, on February 2, was the second in the region that day.

In January, four people were killed in an avalanche in Glencoe.

Hospital doctor Rachel Majumdar, 29; PhD student Tom Chesters, 28; Christopher Bell, 24, also a PhD student; and 25-year-old junior doctor Una Finnegan died after they were caught up in an avalanche on January 19.

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