Canada’s Nick Zoricic has died competing in a ski-cross World Cup event in Switzerland yesterday, organisers said.

The 29-year-old crashed into safety netting after the final jump just before the finish on the Grindelwald slope.

Lying motionless he was attended to by doctors before being airlifted by Air Glacier to a hospital in Interlaken.

“Despite re-animation Zoricic died as a result of severe neurotrauma,” organisers Swiss-Ski reported in a statement.

Local police are to hold an investigation into the events surrounding the fatal accident.

In a joint statement the International Ski Federation and the Swiss Ski Federation expressed “their sincere condolences to the family, to friends and to Team Canada”.

Born in Sarajevo, Zoricic emigrated to Canada with his family as a child and began a career as a downhill skiier, competing on the World Cup circuit before switching to ski-cross.

This is the second fatality suffered by Canadian skiing this year, Zoricic’s death following that of Sarah Burke, world half-pipe champion in 2005, who died in January from injuries sustained in a training accident.