Tian Shan

Viral Video, July 11: Ten people, including nine Britons, are reported to have survived after a huge avalanche swept over them in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

Footage uploaded on Instagram by Harry Shimmin, one of the people on the trekking tour, showed snow starting to break down a mountain in the distance, before sweeping towards them and forcing the group to take cover as the snow went over top of them.

Shimmin had broken away from the guided tour group to take photographs when he heard “the sound of deep ice cracking behind me”, according to an account he posted alongside the video.

The Tian Shan mountains mainly straddle south-eastern Kyrgyzstan and its northeast border with China. They formed part of the ancient Silk Road trading route from the Middle East and Asia to the west.