Parts of Austria, southern Germany sink deeper into snow

BERLIN — Heavy snowfall continued Thursday in parts of Austria and southern Germany, with several places cut off and the bad weather expected to persist. Snow was causing problems in other parts of Europe, even in Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago.

Austrian police said that a 16-year-old boy from Australia was killed in an avalanche in St. Anton am Arlberg as he was skiing with his family on Wednesday.

In neighboring Slovakia, the mountain rescue service said a 37-year-old man was killed by an avalanche in the Mala Fatra mountains. A 7-year-old child was killed in Aying, near Munich, by a falling tree. 

That brought to at least 17 the number of weather-related deaths reported in Europe over the past week.