Mother dies, child missing in Lapland avalanche

A woman was killed, and her minor child went missing in an avalanche amidst severe cold weather at Pallastunturi in Muonio, a municipality in northern Finland on Tuesday afternoon, police said in a press release on Wednesday.

The incident took place at about 4:00 pm when the woman together with her child were skiing near the Pallastunturi fells and encountered problems at Pallas due to the cold weather.

There was very strong wind in the area and the temperature was about minus 23 degrees Celsius.

Responding to an alarm from the other skiers, rescue services people and police rushed to the spot and conducted extensive searches at the area.

They found the body of the woman under an avalanche, which was about 400 meters wide late Tuesday night at about 10:00 p.m. but had to suspend the rescue operation for the night due to adverse weather condition and the child could not be found.

Police did not divulge the identity of the deceased but said that they lived outside of Finland.

Rescue services people, police and Border Guard equipped with helicopter resumed the search on Wednesday but failed to trace out the missing boy till late Wednesday night. They had to suspend the operation further due to the adverse weather.

The search will resume on Thursday again and will continue until the child is found, lead investigator Kirsi Huhtamäki of Lapland police said.