Bodies of five young sportsmen brought down from Tyva mountain

One escaped, but on Wednesday five bodies were pulled from the snow close to the border with Mongolia. Another is presumed dead but his body has not been found yet on the remote mountain.

Only one of the group escaped, European kickboxing champion Anton Salchak, 17, to sound the alarm with the authorities. The group of two wrestlers and five kickboxers had been planting flags on Ak-Bashtyg Mountain.

Disaster struck as they skied down the slopes.

The placing of such flags is a local ritual and the group had done it previously. 

'The avalanche was five-to-six metres deep, 200 metres wide and 600 metres long,' said a source in the Russian national emergency situation management centre .

The leader of Tyva signed an order to pay 100,000 rubles ($3,300) in compensation to the families of the six lost young men, aged between 14 and 18.

The payment was authorised before the deaths of five of the group were confirmed.