Two dead and one injured in avalanche on Norwegian Arctic island of Jan Mayen
- The only inhabitants on Jan Mayen, part of Norway since 1930, are the staff of the Norwegian military and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute
- Norwegian media said the victims were a woman and a man, and an unidentified man who survived the avalanche sustained minor injuries
Two civilian employees of the Norwegian military were killed and a third one injured in an avalanche on a remote Arctic Ocean island inhabited only by soldiers and researchers of the Nordic country.
A statement from the Norwegian Armed Forces said Sunday that the accident took place Saturday afternoon on Jan Mayen Island, located 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Greenland and 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) west of mainland Norway.
“Three employees based at the Armed Forces station on Jan Mayen were on a leisure trip when they were hit by an avalanche, some distance from the station,” the Norwegian military said.
One managed to break free after being buried in snow for two hours and returned back to the military base for help, it said.
Norwegian media said the victims were a woman and a man. Public broadcaster NRK identified them as nurse Bjoerk Batalden, 57, who was on a six-month assignment on the island, and civil engineer Robin Karlsen, 31.
The unidentified man who survived the avalanche sustained minor injuries, NRK said.