Rescue services have found the bodies of three people who were missing after a series of avalanches hit the Swiss Alps, bringing the death toll from the disaster to seven, officials said Tuesday.
"I can confirm that the three people buried (under the snow) have been found dead, bringing the death toll to seven," Marie-Christine Repond, spokeswoman from Swiss rescue services Rega, told AFP.
Police from the Bern region said the bodies were those of two men and a woman. While they did not specify their nationalities, police had earlier said that a German and two Swiss were reported missing after the avalanches.
The first avalanche hit on Sunday around noon in central Switzerland's Bernese Alps, killing a skier. Emergency services were searching for survivors when another one struck half an hour later.
Eight helicopters carrying doctors, rescuers and avalanche dogs were despatched to the disaster site and pulled out eight people alive.
Some of the survivors were in a critical condition and three died later in a hospital, including a doctor who had arrived to treat people following the first avalanche. Among these first victims was a German.
Rescuers also found the body of a hiker buried in the snow, police said in a statement.
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