Briton ‘unlikely to survive’ after Alps accident

Experienced snowboarder Emily Watts, known as Mimi, fell head first into a snowdrift and was stuck for about 45 minutes following the fall in Chamonix, where she was working, on Saturday.

By the time emergency crews arrived the 26-year-old design student from Lavenham, in Suffolk, had suffered a cardiac arrest, prompting fears of brain damage.

Her parents, Nicky and Dominic, along with her 27-year-old brother Rory, are at her bedside while she remains on a life support machine.

Miss Watts’s aunt, Shona Pollock, said the family were “consumed with grief” as it became clear she was unlikely to recover.

“It’s so sad. Mimi is a fabulous, outgoing character, plucky, and someone who loved the mountains.”