Eight high school students in Japan were found not breathing after they were swept up in an avalanche on a ski slope Monday morning in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, local rescue officials said.
Thirty other people were injured during the avalanche.
The avalanche happened in the Nasu Onsen Family Ski Resort in the town of Nasu at around 9:20 a.m. local time, after which emergency dispatchers received emergency calls.
Screenshot from Japan's NHK news
The teachers and students began their mountaineering activities on the slope at around 7:30 a.m. local time on Monday, a representative of one of the schools said.
The springtime climbing event began on Saturday and was supposed to finish at noon on Monday, a school spokesperson also said.
According to reports, senior students and teachers from several different schools were taking part in a springtime climbing event when the accident happened.
The Tochigi Fire and Disaster Prevention Division said that rescue measures are currently ongoing.
Screenshot from Japan's NHK news
The prefectural Board of Education in the area said that 66 people, including 11 faculty members, joined the climbing workshop from seven high schools in the prefecture and were all concurrently receiving workshops to do with mountaineering on three different slopes when the disaster happened.
Screenshot from Japan's NHK news
The central government has set up a task force at the crisis management center of the prime minister's office, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a parliamentary session that his government "will make every effort to respond to the disaster, while making it a top priority to rescue victims of the avalanche."
Tochigi Prefecture is located in the Kanto region just north of Tokyo on the island of Honshu, and its capital is the city of Utsunomiya.
(With inputs from Xinhua)
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