A child died on Sunday of injuries sustained after an avalanche tore through an archipelago in northern Norway, raising the death toll to two, according to dpa. A 42-year-old man had died on Saturday when the avalanche hit a residential area in Longyearbyen. Several people were injured and were being treated in hospital. Some houses, which are constructed on stilts due to the permafrost, were carried up to 80 metres when the avalanche struck, others were crushed to pieces. The evening before the avalanche saw the worst storm in 30 years, according to the Svalbardposten newspaper. Geologists estimate that hundreds of tons of snow descended on each house. Rescue teams used specially trained dogs to scour mountains Sunday, a government official said. Residents used snow shovels to search for people buried under the snow, but there were no reports that anyone else was missing on Sunday. "We've been hit with a huge tragedy," Sysselmann Kjerstin Askholt, government official for Svalbard, said at a press conference on Sunday, adding there was still a risk of more avalanches after further slips destroyed an empty hut. Experts were looking for signs of further danger, Askholt said, adding that the area had not yet been confirmed safe. Around 180 people have been evacuated from Longyearbyen and Askholt could not say when they would be allowed to return. "We have a very special weather situation. Only when the wind and snowfall decrease will we be able to be sure," Askholt said. At least 10 people were also injured when the avalanche unexpectedly hit on Saturday morning. Svarlbard, an Arctic archipelago administered by Norway, has some 2,700 inhabitants. Unlike on the mainland, there is no avalanche warning system on the islands.
