Girl, 13, killed on ski trip
POLICE are investigating the death of a 13-year-old British girl who plunged to her death from a ski lift yesterday during a school trip to the Alps.
Poonam Bhattal plummeted 20ft hitting her head on a cement pylon shortly after getting onto the lift during her morning ski lesson in the resort of Claviere, on the French-Italian border.
The youngster, from Langley near Slough, had been enjoying a week-long skiing excursion when the tragedy happened yesterday morning.
While the exact circumstances are not yet clear, the local prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello said he had opened a manslaughter investigation to determine why the safety bar that usually keeps skiers in place had not prevented the fall.
Poonam had been with teachers and fellow pupils from her school, Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in Hayes, Middlesex.