At least eight people have died this weekend in Austria due avalanches in the west of the country, with Austrian authorities raising the alert level to four on a scale of five.

Three skiers were recovered dead on Sunday, in addition to a 59-year-old man who was trying to remove the snow with his tractor. 

Officials in the Austrian state of Tyrol have urgently cautioned tourists, skiers and other winter sports athletes to avoid the slopes, especially unsecured off-piste slopes, amid a very high avalanche risk.

Series of avalanches in Tyrol

Despite the high alert level, skiing athletes and enthusiasts have begun flocking to ski resorts in Austria as the snowfall increased, after a slow start to the winter delayed the skiing season.

However, heavy snowfall and wind over the past two days have increased the avalanche danger. On Saturday, some thirty avalanches were reported in Tyrol alone. Eleven of the avalanches involved missing people, with rescue efforts slowed by poor visibility and weather conditions.

Authorities have continued to warn of further avalanches in several countries' Alpine regions.

A Bavarian woman was killed by an avalanche in the German speaking autonomous northern Italian region of South Tyrol on Saturday. 

The Bavarian avalanche warning service, meanwhile, also reported a series of weekend avalanches, often triggered by skiers, but said that nobody was seriously injured.

rmt/msh (AFP, dpa)