Zermatt

On Thursday, road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais and tourists and residents were told to stay indoors in the French resort of Tignes.

The Swiss ski resort of Zermatt was cut off and tourists and residents were told to stay indoors in the French resort of Tignes because of heavy snow in the Alps on Thursday.

Road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais; power was cut throughout Thursday and mobile phone networks were badly disrupted.

South of Zermatt, power outages were reported in 37 of the 74 municipalities in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, and a bridge collapsed in Biella in nearby Piedmont.

In some of Switzerland's most famous up-market resorts, like St Moritz or Zermatt, there are long-standing concerns that the focus on luxury is pricing locals out of the market.