British teenager dies on school ski trip in the Italian Alps

 
23 February 2013

The 13-year-old, thought to be Poonam Bhattal from Slough, died after falling from a ski lift. She was described on Twitter today by her friends as "a beautiful girl" who will be "dearly missed".

She is said to have fallen 16 feet on to the piste in the resort of Claviere yesterday morning while having a ski lesson with classmates from the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in Hayes, Middlesex. She boarded the chairlift around 9.30am.

Although Poonam initially survived the fall, she died while on her way to a hospital 25 miles away in Susa, according to Sky News.

Local police commissioner Francesco Destro told Sky News: "The ski lift was moving very fast and rising fast when she fell." He said he could not recall a similar accident. Mr Destro added that the girl initially answered questions when officers rushed to her aid but "did not make it".

Police have launched an investigation and are due to question the teenager's classmates, who boarded the lift with her.

The school's principal, Rajinder Singh Sandhu, broke the news of the teenager's death to her family.

In a statement, he said the half-term excursion was led by the vice principal of the school with the help of two assistant head teachers and "a massively experienced team of eight staff".

"The leader of this trip and everyone associated with it is devastated by the death of an absolutely lovely student.

"The vice principal leading the trip has vast experience - having led 28 of such trips throughout his teaching career. He is obsessive about safety and security on these trips.

"It would be inappropriate for the school to comment further - given that there must be no prejudice to the very thorough investigation that will take place by Italian authorities.

He added that the school is "doing everything possible to support the family in any way possible".

Skibound, which organised the trip, said in a statement: "Skibound regrets to confirm that a pupil from Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in Hayes, Middlesex, has been involved in a fatal incident in the ski resort of Claviere in the Piemonte region of Italy on 22nd February at 09:30 CET. The company's operations centre received notification from the resort manager that a female pupil had been involved in an incident on a chairlift during her morning ski school lesson.

A Foreign & Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm the death of a British National on Friday 22 February in Italy. We are providing consular assistance at this sad time."

Claviere is a ski resort in the province of Turin which crosses the French border.

Poonam's death came just hours before the funeral of 10-year-old Jemima Prees, from Wiltshire, who died earlier this month in a ski accident in the Austrian Alps.

Jemima was killed when she hit a tree at high speed while on a half-term holiday at the Mayrhofen resort near Tyrol with her family.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in