Three people caught in avalanche (From Halstead Gazette)

Three people caught in avalanche

4:06pm Saturday 2nd February 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013

Three people have been airlifted to hospital after being caught up in an avalanche in the Scottish mountains, police said.

The avalanche happened shortly before 11.30am in the Coire an t-Sneachda area of the Cairngorms.

Northern Constabulary said the three were taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness by air.

Police who responded to the incident said they were assisted by members of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, an RAF helicopter and a Strathclyde Police mountain rescue team, who were carrying out training in the area.

The incident comes two weeks after a killer avalanche claimed four lives in the Highlands.

The incident involved three men who were swept 150m down a mountain, Cairngorm Mountain Rescue said.

Training officer Al Gilmour said it was the second avalanche in the area on Saturday and that the men escaped life-threatening injuries because they were all wearing helmets.

"There was actually a separate avalanche in the area before we got the call out for the later one with three people," Mr Gilmour said. "Two people involved in that walked away completely unscathed so they were lucky.

"The later one involved three men who were carried about 150m over rocks but they were wearing helmets and, from accounts of the rescue personnel on the hill, that probably saved them and they got away with leg injuries, although one of them may have a particularly serious lower leg injury.

"I saw one of the helmets of one of the guys who was rescued and it's got quite deep scratches along the side. It was only the three men involved and at no point were they under the snow, they were pushed along on the surface."