MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. /TASS/. A tourist group consisting of nine people got into an avalanche in the Altai mountains on May 6, seven people died, while two tourists survived, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry informed TASS on Wednesday.

"On May 6, an avalanche went down in the South Chuya Range area. Seven people died, two surviving members of the group got to the village of Kosh-Agach today. They were unable to report the accident earlier, as there was no connection there [in the mountains]. A helicopter carrying rescuers from Gorno-Altaisk is leaving for the scene to conduct a search operation and recover tourists from the avalanche at 14:00 (10:00 Moscow time)," the press service said.

Meanwhile, a law enforcement source told TASS that Nikolai Simonov, head of the tourist club at Novosibirsk State University, was among those who died in the avalanche accident. According to the source, the expedition was unrelated to the academic activity.