Grenoble: The weekend death toll in the vacation-packed Alps rose today when a man was killed in an avalanche in France, after four people perished earlier in a snowslide in Switzerland, police said.

A man in his fifties was killed and two of his companions were gravely injured today after an avalanche swept their cross-country skiing party of four away near the Isere town of Saint-Honore, police in Grenoble said.