Photos: Powerful avalanche pummels town, one child dead
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, December 23, 2015, 1:11 PM - A two-year-old girl has been confirmed dead after an avalanche pummeled through the small Norwegian community of Longyearbyen Saturday.
Nikoline was transported to Tromsø’s University Hospital of Northern Norway before passing away Sunday.
The toddler and her three-year-old sister Pernille were rescued in a “very difficult mission,” reports say. Pernille was listed in serious condition, but remains stable in Tromsø’s hospital
On Dec. 19, a total of ten people – four of which were children – were hospitalized, the Wall Street Journal reports (WSJ).
DON'T MISS: Teen rescued after spending 60 hours trapped in landslide rubble.
The 2,040 residents of Longyearbyen mourn the loss of the child, who now brings the death toll up to two. The second victim was a local resident in his early 40s, the office of Svalbard’s governor told The Wall Street Journal.
The avalanche was the result of two to three metres of snow falling on Norway’s mountains in a short period of time, and with an unstable underlying layer of snow, the fresh layer of snow broke off, crashing into the mountainside, Norway’s NewsinEngilsh reports.
About 10 per cent of the city’s population were cleared to return home Sunday night.
See the impact of Lonyearbyen’s powerful avalanche below.
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In March 2014, thousands visited Svalbard for the total solar eclipse.
The avalanche struck several weeks after winter darkness began, when the sun doesn’t appear for the duration of mid-winter.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal | NewsInEnglish.no
