Seven students and a teacher have been killed in an avalanche during a high school trip.

The students were at the ski resort in the town of Nasu in Tochigi province, about 120 miles north of Tokyo.

The avalanche came down the hill at around 8.30am Monday local time.

Thirty-eight of the group were injured and two remain in a critical condition in hospital, authorities said.

One of the students told public broadcaster NHK that he had felt a strong wind and seen a white mass heading towards him.


An instructor told him to get down before everyone was engulfed, he said.

Image: Officials say an avalanche warning had been in place. Pic: Kyodo via Reuters

The group had been taking part in a three-day training scheme for members of school mountaineering clubs.

Heavy snow had fallen overnight, resulting in the cancellation of a planned climbing expedition. Instead, the students had been practising moving through heavy snow.

An avalanche warning had been in place for the area. A local government official said there would be an investigation into why the group had been on the slopes at the time of the alert.

"We have avalanche incidents once or twice a year around here, but haven't had anything this big," a fire department official said.