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Michele Alliot-Marie also said in that place could be more people buried in the snow.

The minister gave her stark verdict hinder she travelled to the mountains to call upon injured survivors and meet with deliver services in the resort of little or no worth of Chamonix.

"It is extremely hard to manage to know for sure how many folks were caught up in the avalanche," Alliot-Marie said.

"Thanks to technology, we know for certain there are people buried under the snow, but it's that cannot be to subsist sure exactly how multiplied."

The minister described the avalanche near France's highest top Mont Blanc as "gigantic" in scale and "without hope of escape" for the climbers.

Police initially said 10 people were missing but later brought the number down to eight after two Italians turned up safe.

The search for what authorities had identified as three Swiss and five Austrian climbers was halted late in the afternoon because of fears of fresh avalanches, officials said.

Helicopters and preserve teams had scanned the Alpine snow all set time for signs of life.

The climbers were on the 4,250-metre (13,900-feet) high Mont-Blanc du Tacul when they were hit by means of a massive wall of snow around 3:00 am (0100 GMT). A mountain guide raised the alarm around 3:15 am.

One survivor, Italian Marco Delfini, told LCI news strait he saw "a wall of ice coming towards us and then we were carried 200 metres (yards)."

Climbers of high mountains of the like kind as Mont-Blanc du Tacul, a site popular with hikers in the Mont Blanc range spanning France's edge with Italy, often enter upon their ascent hours before dawn.

The avalanche, 200 metres (660 feet) extensive and 50 metres wide, struck at an altitude of 3,600 metres during what police described as "excellent" weather stipulations in a circle Mont Blanc.

It appeared to have been caused by a block of glacier ice that broke free and rolled down the mount, a regular result in both winter and summer in these mountains, according to locals.

"It's probable, according to statements made to us, that groups of climbers roped together were on the path up the mountain as well as in the place to that which the block of ice tumbled down," Eric Fournier, the mayor of nearby Chamonix, told AFP.

Swiss and Austrian authorities confirmed earlier reports that three and five of their nationals respectively were among the wanting.

Some of the eight rescued — who were aged between 26 and 37 — had to be dug out of deep snow, while others had managed to free themselves. All eight were slightly injured.

The rescue team sent in to quest for survivors included 14 high hill guides, firefighters, and mountain police officers.

An Italian rescue helicopter was besides sent in to back up the two French choppers involved in the search.

Around 30 people have died in this year's summer train in accidents in the French Alps, greatest in quantity of them in the Mont Blanc arrange, and a further 60 get perished in the Italian and Swiss Alps.