An Australian family’s winter holiday has ended in tragedy after a teenager was killed while skiing in Austria.

Police confirmed a 16-year-old boy, from Australia, was killed in an avalanche in St. Anton am Arlberg ski village on Wednesday.

He was on a skiing holiday with his family when he was buried by the avalanche as his parents and brother looked on helplessly, according to reports.

Local authorities said the teenager was skiing with his father, 58, mother, 55, and younger brother, 14, in the late afternoon when they became stuck on steep terrain and called for help.

According to the police statement, the family was hit by an avalanche as they waited for rescuers to arrive. It covered the mother and her 16-year-old son.

“The woman was able to free herself from the snow and remained unhurt,” the statement read.

“The avalanche came to a standstill at the bottom of the valley and had a thickness of up to four metres. The 16-year-old son was completely buried by the snow masses.”

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The family issued a call for help after running into trouble while skiing off- piste near the St Anton resort in Tyrol, a police spokesman said.

Rescuers retrieved the boy’s body 20 minutes later but he could not be revived. The family, a German man and Australian woman and their children, live in Australia.

The identity of the victim has not been released.

Ski outings turned into dangerous experiences in the Austrian Alps and Slovakian mountains on Wednesday amid continuing heavy snowfall.

Six German teenagers were luckier, emerging alive from an avalanche that engulfed them at the Wildkogel resort in Austria’s Salzburg province.