Eight senior high school boys hit by an avalanche on a ski slope north of Tokyo were found displaying no vital signs on Monday morning. In Japan, a doctor has to examine the bodies before an official death notice can be issued. More than 30 other people were injured in the avalanche, which occurred on a ski slope during a spring mountaineering workshop involving school children and their teachers in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture.
More than 60 students from seven different high schools and a dozen teachers were believed to be on the slope at the time when the avalanche occurred.
Japan 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 120 km north of Tokyo on the island of Honshu.