Avalanche wipes out chairlift in St. Francois Longchamps

Dramatic mobile phone footage has captured the moment an avalanche rolled down the mountain in St Francois Longchamp, wiping out several lift pylons.

Onlookers stood stunned watching the tonnes of snow and a couple of them managed to film it on their phones. First of all they thought it was a snow slide, but it turned out to be an avalanche 500 metres long. It wiped out the piste and chairlift -  the first pylon was buried and the cables swept away.

There were 41 skiers taking the lift up the mountain at the time, but luckily no one was hurt. Skiers on the lift were evacuated by rescue services in helicopters. Luckily the black run was closed or things could have been a lot worse.

Captain Cyril Anceau, the Alps rescue commander, said, "There was the risk of another avalanche so we wanted to avoid bringing the people down on the ground to stop them being swept way by another avalanche."    

The avalanche is linked to the unusually high temperatures for this time of year.