Boy, 8, hurt in télésiège fall

Accidents mar ski holidays as girl killed in sledging accident and youth left in coma after hitting tree

AN EIGHT year old boy has been seriously injured after falling out of a télésiège (chairlift) while heading to the ski slopes at Deux-Alpes.

The boy's father tried to save him but could not hold on and he fell about eight metres from the Lac Noir télésiège in the Toura slopes.

He was airlifted unconscious to hospital in Grenoble, but doctors said his life was not in danger. He had been wearing a helmet.

The boy, from Yvelines, and his father had been sitting in the four-seat télésiège when he slid out of his seat at the second pylon after setting off from the station.

Another young skier was taken to the same hospital in a critical condition with head injuries yesterday after hitting a tree on the slopes at Montgenèvre.

No one saw the 14 year old fall but he was found by another skier lying under a tree just off-piste.

In the Hautes-Pyrénées a 12 year old girl has been killed after hitting a piste-basher machine on the slopes at La Mongie. The accident happened just after the ski slopes had been shut on Wednesday.

The girl, from Thouaré-sur-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, had been sledging with her twin brother at the bottom of the beginners area. Her brother managed to jump from the sledge before it hit the tractor.

The driver has been arrested.