Brit skier killed in Swiss Alps crash after losing control and plunging into river

A British skier has died after losing control on a and crashing into a river.

The man, aged 54, was near Grindelwald - a popular village in ’s Bernese Alps - when he crashed into the Rychenbach Stream. He was airlifted to in the capital Bern after fellow skiers pulled him from the water and called the emergency services. The unnamed Brit tragically succumbed to his multiple injuries and died the following day. He was on an authorised run from the 6,800-foot-high Kleine Scheidegg pass when he suddenly lost control and plunged into Rychenbach Falls - which famously features in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Final Problem' as the spot where confronts his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty. are currently investigating the man's death.

In the Swiss Alps, including the Bernese Alps, there were 28 fatal accidents on ski tours last winter, the highest number in five years.

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It comes just weeks after a British skier was found dead at a ski resort after "having drinks and getting lost". The 23-year-old man was found at the foot of a cliff in the French Alps in Avoriaz, Morzine, in February. It is understood he had been out with friends over the weekend before having drinks at La Folie Douce in Avoriaz. Authorities fear he then decided to go for a ski down the mountainside alone, and after getting lost, took his skis off and fell to his death.

His friends raised the alarm when he did not return and he was found dead the next morning by search teams. A police spokesman told : “The deceased is an English national who is thought to have been skiing on Sunday evening. His family have been informed.” A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman confirmed: "We are supporting the family of a British man who died in France and are in contact with the local authorities."

Avoriaz is known as a top skiing destination and is one of 13 ski resorts within the Portes du Soleil region. Last year the region in France hit headlines when a 68-year-old British skier died after he crashed into a tree at the resort in France.