Kilometer long killer avalanche hits school trip - one dead, six missing

An avalanche started at 11.06 a.m. from a peak known as Bula in the Rysy Mountains and continued until it reached Czarny Staw, around a kilometer away. The snow came down with great force along the tourist route. On its path it swept away 13 people: 11 high-school students and two supervisors. Mountain rescuers (TOPR) with the help of professional equipment frantically endeavored to find the missing people under heaps of snow. A 16-year-old girl was dug up and resuscitated. Later the rescue team found a boy in a critical state with a serious head injury. He was operated on in a local hospital. Another member of the school trip was found dead. In the evening, the rescue mission was suspended due to darkness, strong winds and falling snow. "There are six people still under the snow," said one of the rescuers. Doctors predict that the chances of now finding them alive are very slim. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) A.C.