A tragic incident occurs in the Austrian Kaiser Mountains when a German is buried by a rock avalanche. Now it is known that it is a KSK soldier. However, the search operation had to be interrupted due to storms and the danger of loose rock.
The 30-year-old German, who was buried in a rock fall in the Tyrolean Kaiser Mountains, is a soldier in the Bundeswehr’s Special Forces Command (KSK). The accident happened when the elite unit was completing mountain training. The circumstances of the rescue work are therefore life-threatening and had to be interrupted during the night. Search work by the military and civilian forces initially remained unsuccessful.
The German commandos are trained to become army mountain guides. “All commandos receive mountain combat training to be prepared for combat in difficult terrain,” the KSK said in a statement. The KSK is stationed in Calw (Baden-Württemberg).
Chunks five cubic meters in size fell on the Stripsenjoch, said a spokesman for the operations control center of the German Press Agency on Thursday. Because of fog, wetness and the danger of loose rock, the Austrian mountain rescuers had to stop their search for the missing person for the time being, and the search was not resumed on Friday morning either. According to the KSK, the search operation continued throughout the day.
Four other Germans with whom the buried person was traveling remained unharmed. The five had abseiled over a 40-meter-high rock face, the police said. When the 30-year-old reached the foot of the wall, he wanted to climb back up a path to the starting point when the large rock avalanche fell over him. His comrades, who were already at the top, would have immediately started searching and alerted emergency services.
