Tragedy as girl dies after she was covered in snow by excavator

With a friend, she had been playing in Yekaterinburg near a large pile of snow as an excavator driver was clearing a recent fall. He did not see her. Earlier it was thought she had made a snow hole and hidden there: in fact, when she was dug out of the snow pile she was standing upright. 

Leading specialist Tatyana Aust had warned hefore her death that Alyona has suffered from prolonged hypoxia, so her chances of survival were minimal.

Her mother Olga, 33, said the day before she died: 'There is no hope already, but I believe in miracle, all of a sudden. The doctors could be wrong. My husband does not believe, it's all very hard, but I still believe. 

'I look at her pictures and drawings and feel that she is next to me.'

The bereaved mother said: 'When they got her, she was unconscious, with her eyes open. She was blue-green... At first they thought that she hid in a hole there - they dug a hole in this snow pile with her friend. 

'But when they found her, she was face up, as she was standing. So, she stood next to the sow pile. And he just pulled the snow on her. So it was his negligence. He did not look...'

But the driver said: 'When I dumped the snow there, I went and looked - there was no one there.' The girl 'came from somewhere 'as if out of the sky. 'I was scared, I'm father of two'.

The driver is currently under investigation. Top surgeon Sergey Stepanenko flew to Yekaterinburg but to no avail.