The winter season has triggered avalanches in Europe and Japan recently, claiming lives and causing damage to property.
At a time when more avalanches are predicted in mountain terrains, we bring you the pictures of the most devastating avalanches in the past few years.
Start the slideshow to view pictures of these avalanches that hit mountain villages in different parts of the world and claimed hundreds of lives.
Three climbers were killed in an avalanche on the mountain, Buchaille Etive Mor, Jan. 2009.PAPolice officers investigate the site where three people were found in a state of cardiac arrest after they were caught in an avalanche in Senboku, Akita prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo Feb. 2, 2012. The three victims were killed after they were caught in the avalanche while taking a bedrock bath at a hot spring inn. Heavy snow and blizzards hit areas along the Sea of Japan on Feb. 1.REUTERSA man walks in snow in a village in Kohistan district, located in Pakistan's northwest frontier province Feb. 19, 2010. An avalanche buried a remote hamlet in northern Pakistan on Thursday killing up to 19 people. REUTERSA house is seen buried under snow in the Bakerwal Chak village, about 90 km (56 miles) south of Srinagar Feb. 9, 2008. Twenty people were killed by avalanches and 15 others were missing in Indian Kashmir as the heaviest snowfall in recent years brought the Himalayan region to a standstill.REUTERS/Danish IshmailAfghan villagers search for avalanche victims in Raghistan, Badakhshan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2012. Around 29 people have died in avalanches so far this year in Badakhshan province, according to the Afghan National Disaster Management Agency and at least 40 more people have been injured and rescuers were struggling to reach areas of Afghanistan's mountainous northeast that were cut off by heavy snows.PAAfghan men push a car, as they escape from an avalanche south of Salang tunnel, some 100 km north from Kabul on February 7, 2002. Three people died from asphyxiation after an avalanche blocked an entrance to the Salang Tunnel in highlands north of the Afghan capital Kabul.REUTERS/Oleg PopovAn aerial view of Namsos town in North Troendelag county in Norway after an avalanche destroyed several houses, March 13, 2009. REUTERS/Scanpix NorwayAvalanche in ChileREUTERSRescue workers search for survivors after an avalanche swept down a mountain near the village of Zigana in mountainous Gumushane province, near Turkey's Black Sea coast Jan. 25, 2009. An avalanche that swept down a mountain near a small winter resort killed 10 climbers in northeast Turkey, but seven of their companions survived the crush. REUTERSA handout black white photo shows the beginning and path of the avalanche that killed seven people on Durand Glacier near Revelstoke, British Columbia, Jan. 20, 2003. The strong quake, which struck just after 8pm Jan. 21 with an epicenter off the coast of the state of Colima, left 23 people dead and destroyed several houses in the center of the state capital, and was felt in a large part of the country. REUTERS/Stuart MilliganRescue workers search for victims in the village of Tour, near Chamonix, early Feb. 10. An avalanche covered part of the village, killing 12 people, Feb. 9. 17 mountain chalets were swept away by the avalanche measuring 150 meters (400ft) wide and 6 meters (19ft) deep. REUTERSBodies of two avalanche victims are placed near the house and covered with blankets after an avalanche hit houses in the village in Restelica, southern Kosovo, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. Rescuers pulled a 5-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche that killed both of her parents and at least seven of her relatives in the remote mountain village. PA
