Dutch prince injured in Austrian avalanche

INNSBRUCK: Several members of the Dutch royal family arrived in Innsbruck Friday after a son of Queen Beatrix, Prince Johan Friso, was seriously injured in an avalanche while skiing there.

The prince was in a stable condition "but not out of danger" after the accident in the western Austrian resort of Lech, the Dutch royal house said in a statement from The Hague.

"According to the doctors treating Prince Friso, a prognosis will only be possible in a few days," it added.

The accident apparently occurred shortly after noon.

The 43-year-old Dutch royal, who was skiing offpiste when the accident happened, was wearing a ski helmet and had an avalanche beeper with him that allowed rescuers to locate him quickly, Pia Herbst, spokeswoman for the Lech area tourism board, said.

His companion was also equipped with an avalanche airbag that helped him escape the snow mass and alert the rescue services.

The prince nevertheless spent some 20 minutes under the snow before he was rescued and had to be resuscitated, Lech mayor Ludwig Muxel told Austrian radio ORF.

Prince Friso was eventually evacuated by helicopter to Innsbruck University Hospital, the Austria Press Agency said.

Nobody else was believed to have been injured in the avalanche, according to a press statement from Lech.

Innsbruck University Hospital confirmed to AFP that the prince had been brought there for treatment, using the same terms as the royal house.

"He's here. He's stable but his condition is still life-threatening," a spokesman said, referring all other inquiries to the royal press office.

It added that Queen Beatrix and the prince's wife Mabel Wisse Smit were at his side in hospital.

Also at the hospital were two of Johan Friso's brothers, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima, and younger brother Prince Constantijn with his wife Princess Laurentien.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also told Dutch news agency ANP that he had spoken to the queen.

"I told her all of the Netherlands express their sympathy."

Much of western Austria has been under a level-four avalanche alert -- the second highest -- over the past few days following heavy snowfall, with at least half a dozen people caught in avalanches between Thursday and Friday.

A 51-year-old Swedish tourist was killed by an avalanche on Wednesday as he was skiing on a marked slope in the popular resort of Ischgl, also in western Austria.

The Dutch royals regularly spend their ski holidays in the posh resort of Lech, in the westernmost province of Vorarlberg.

Prince Johan Friso is the second son of Queen Beatrix.

After he married in 2004 without the government's permission, he was excluded from the royal family and is no longer seen as an heir to the throne, but he keeps the title Prince of Orange-Nassau.

Johan Friso has been chief financial director of Britain's URENCO group -- dealing with nuclear fuel supply -- since 2011, and previously worked with the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

He also received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Delft and in economics from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, according to his biography on URENCO's website. (AFP)