GENEVA – Five cross-country skiers who went missing during a ski tour in Switzerland were found dead, while a search was still on for the sixth skier, the police said in a statement on March 11.

The skiers, five of them members of the same family, went missing on March 9 around the Tete Blanche mountain on the Zermatt-Arolla path, near the Matterhorn mountain that straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy.

The bodies were discovered on March 10 in Tete Blanche sector, the police said.

The skiers were between the ages of 21 and 58, according to an earlier police statement.

Five of them belonged to a family from Valais canton, while a sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg.

The police did not reveal the identities of those who were found dead.

Zermatt is a popular mountain resort renowned for skiing and attracts tourists from around the world. REUTERS