A British skier has died in Italy after falling ill while heading down a piste.
The 49-year-old was skiing in the ski resort of Claviere in the Italian Alps on January 4 when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest.
Emergency services responded immediately and attempted to resuscitate the Brit, while a medical team from the regional air rescue service was also dispatched to the scene.
Despite their efforts, the man was pronounced dead on the slopes.
His body was later transferred to a hospital in nearby Susa.
The tragedy is the latest to hit the Alpine region after a 24-year-old British skier died last month after he fell 900ft down a steep off-piste slope in the French Alps.
The unnamed Brit is understood to have been among a group of skiers who went off-piste in Les Arcs 2000 in the French ski resort of Savoie.
Two members of the group tried to ski down a steep slope but one of them lost his footing and careered out of control down the slope before he crashed over a rocky ridge.
Other skiers raised the alarm and two ski patrollers rushed to his aid where he was found unconscious, having suffered a cardiac arrest.
An air ambulance was sent from Courchevel and reached the victim about half an hour after the initial alert.
A doctor and two police rescue workers sought to revive the man but tragically he was declared dead.
The resort said ‘its most sincere thoughts to the family and the friends of the victim’.
The second skier was found trapped at the top of the slope unable to move.
He was later rescued by a police helicopter.
According to The Times, the deadly slope was wide at the top but narrowed towards the bottom before ending on the ridge, which was covered in a small quantity of hard snow, increasing the risk of accidents.
Resort managers have urged skiers to avoid steep off-piste slopes when the snow is hard.
Daily Mail has approached the Foreign Office for comment.
