British hiker plunges 330ft to her death in French Alps

A British woman has died after falling 330ft while hiking alone in the French Alps.

Felicity Ward, 54, was found close to a hostel near Desert, in the Valjouffrey valley in the Isere region of eastern France, reports AFP.

According to The Sun, she tumbled off a steep path leading up to the Col De Vaurze, and fell around 330ft.

Other walkers came across her body at around 8am on Wednesday morning.

A spokesman for the local mountain police told the Daily Mail the fact there had been no emergency call "makes it clear that she was out walking alone".

Ms Ward had been on a hiking tour of the French and Italian Alps, and was due to fly out of Italy next Wednesday.

Her death comes just a day after four other climbers were killed in separate accidents in the French Alps.

Two Italian women, aged 37 and 41, were killed by an avalanche as they tried to reach the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul, reports thelocal.fr.

And, later in the day, two French climbers were found dead in a 20m-depp crevasse on the Roche de la Muzelle, at 3,465 metres of altitude in the Ecrins massif. It is thought they fell on their descent from the summit.

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