Two foreign skiers missing after avalanche in Nagano, Japan

Rescuers in Japan were searching for two foreign men on Monday after they were caught in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture a day earlier, local police said.

Three other foreign skiers hit by the snow slide, which occurred at around 2:30 pm on the eastern slope of Mount Hakuba Norikura, had been able to climb down the mountain on their own, a police spokesperson said.

The local police had resumed their search shortly after 7 a.m. on Monday for the two missing skiers, whose nationalities were still unknown, the spokesperson told Reuters. They were part of two separate groups skiing on the 2,469 m (8,100 foot) mountain.

The region had experienced heavy snowfall in the previous few days, and the Japan Metrological Agency had issued an avalanche warning at the time the avalanche occurred.