(Vienna, AUT) - A son of Dutch Queen Beatrix, Prince Johan Friso, was injured in an avalanche while skiing in the western Austrian resort of Lech on Friday, the royal family said.
The prince was in a stable condition "but not out of danger" in an Austrian hospital after being caught in a wave of onrushing snow, the Dutch royal house said in a statement from The Hague, quoting doctors treating him.
The mayor of Lech, Ludwig Muxel, speaking to Austrian radio ORF, said the 43-year-old Dutch royal spent some 20 minutes under the snow before he was rescued and had to be resuscitated.
Prince Friso was then evacuated by helicopter to Innsbruck University Hospital, the Austria Press Agency said.
The accident apparently occurred shortly after noon.
The prince was accompanied by another skier, Muxel told a press conference, but nobody else was believed to have been injured in the avalanche, according to a press statement from Lech.
Innsbruck University Hospital confirmed to AFP that the Dutch prince had been brought there for treatment, using the same terms as the royal house.
"He's here. He's stable but his condition is still life-threatening," a spokesman said, referring all other inquiries to the royal press office.
"According to the doctors treating Prince Friso, a prognosis will only be possible in a few days," the royal family added from The Hague.
It added that Queen Beatrix and the prince's wife Mabel Wisse Smit were at his side in hospital.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also told Dutch news agency ANP Friday that he had spoken to the Queen.
"I told her all of the Netherlands express their sympathy."
Much of western Austria has been under a level-four avalanche alert -- the second highest -- over the past few days following heavy snowfall, with at least half a dozen people caught in avalanches between Thursday and Friday.
A 51-year-old Swedish tourist was killed by an avalanche Wednesday as he was skiing on a marked slope in the popular resort of Ischgl, also in western Austria.
According to ANP, Queen Beatrix, her elder son Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, his wife Maxima and their three daughters arrived in Lech on Sunday.
The Dutch royals regularly spend their ski holidays in the posh resort of Lech, in the westernmost province of Vorarlberg.
Prince Johan Friso is the second son of Queen Beatrix and the brother of Willem-Alexander.
After he married in 2004 without the government's permission, he was excluded from the royal family and is no longer seen as an heir to the throne, but he keeps the title Prince of Orange-Nassau.
Johan Friso has been chief financial director of Britain's URENCO group -- dealing with nuclear fuel supply -- since 2011, and previously worked with the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
He also received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Delft and in economics from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, according to his biography on URENCO's website.
