5 climbers die in Swiss mountain accident near Italian border

GENEVA – Police say five foreign climbers have died in a mountain accident in Switzerland near the Italian border.

Police in the southern Valais region of Switzerland said the mountaineers successfully reached the 4,010-meter (13,155-foot) high Lagginhorn summit on Tuesday but plunged more than several hundred meters (yards) to their deaths after beginning to descend.

A sixth member of the group who had stopped before reaching the summit immediately alerted rescue authorities, but the five climbers died on the spot.

Police had no immediate information on the cause of the accident. Details on the victims’ identities and their nationalities were not immediately available. Prosecutors opened an investigation.