Heavy snow and high winds lashed Europe over the weekend, causing the deaths of at least 17 people in weather-related accidents and avalanches in Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland.
Thousands of people in France and southern Germany spent a night trapped in their cars, trains or emergency shelters after heavy snow blanketed the Alps, officials said.
Packed with holidaymakers on ski trips, much of the area was placed under a maximum avalanche alert, with authorities closing off access to many ski resorts.
Avalanches claimed two more lives in a season set to be one of the worst on record.
One avalanche at Diablerets in the southern Swiss Alps on Sunday killed a 45-year-old woman snowshoeing, while another in the north-eastern Italian province of Trento killed a 28-year-old Norwegian man.
At the other end of Italy, on the French border, an avalanche trapped three people on Mount Jaferau but rescue workers were able to pull them out alive, the Ansa news agency said.
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