Australian woman killed in Austrian avalanche

A perilous rescue mission on a remote mountain side in the Austrian Alps was not enough to save a 27-year-old woman caught in an avalanche.

Four Australians were snowboarding near the resort town of St Anton when one of them on a snow ledge is believed to have triggered an avalanche.

According to local police, they fell up to five hundred metres down the side of the mountain, with some buried under the snow.

Two helicopters were required to reach the difficult terrain.

The three survivors were airlifted to hospital in Innsbruck, among them a 30-year-old man in a critical condition.