A worker shovels snow out of a restaurant after an avalanche at Santis-Schwaegalp mountain resort (Image: Reuters)
Germany has deployed soldiers to help rescue people who have been snowed in, while and hundreds of flights have also been cancelled. The extreme weather – which generally hits Europe every 30-100 years – is likely to continue until the middle of next week at the earliest. In Switzerland, a restaurant was rocked by a massive avalanche which buried 25 cars and left three guests eating inside injured.
Hotel Säntis in Schwägalp in the north-east of the Alpine country was hit at 4.30pm yesterday, with a search operation underway to look for people buried in the snow.
One person was dug out of the ski resort, which is sited at an altitude of 4,265ft on the Säntis mountai, which is the highest peak in the Alpstein massif.
Almost 1,000 feet of snow has fallen in Switzerland in just 72 hours, causing enormous disruption.
Meanwhile in Germany, troops were drafted in to help people left trapped in their homes, with hundreds evacuated from the town of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, close to the border with Austria.
A snow plough clears a road from snow in Marienberg in the Ore mountains, Germany (Image: EPA)
The town of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen became
