ROME—Rescue officials say five French ski-mountaineers are missing after being swept away by an avalanche during a trip in Italy's northwestern Alps.
The civil defense agency in the city of Aosta said the group was overrun by the avalanche Thursday afternoon at an altitude of about 8,000 feet while traveling through the Gran Paradiso National Park, an area north of Turin near the French border.
The group's guide, also a French citizen, was pulled from the snow Thursday evening, but the search for the five missing was suspended as darkness fell. The ANSA news agency reported the guide was hospitalized in Aosta in a semiconscious state.
Rescuers plan to resume the search for the five at dawn on Friday.
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