国际英语新闻:1 dead, 3 injured in northern Italy's avalanches: media

MILAN, Italy, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- One skier died and three were injured in a series of avalanches that occurred in Italy's northern region of Trentino Alto Adige on Tuesday, local reports said.

According to experts quoted by the Italian press, the first big avalanche triggered a chain reaction which resulted in at least eight avalanches which buried a group of around 30 skiers.

Most skiers managed to make themselves safe, while rescue teams dragged up some missing ones from the snow.

However, the avalanches claimed the live of a 57-year-old man named Hartmann Stifter, reportedly a skiing and mountain bike enthusiast. Three were reported to be injured, of which one seriously.

"All of them were expert skiers, but the significant growth of temperature in this sunny day caused the snow to melt," a local colonel, Giulio Piller, was quoted by local media as saying.

Piller warned skiers and mountaineers against skiing off piste this winter due to high temperature and minimum amount of snowfall, which makes rocks and other profusions very dangerous.

Commenting on the accident, Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, renowned for making the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, in an interview with Rai State television said risks in the mountains have increased compared to some years ago.

Skiing and climbing have become more affordable thus popular in recent times, he noted. "Less expert skiers often follow the traces of those passing before them, without considering the changes in the temperature conditions," Messner added calling for more prudence when dealing with the mountains.