Five foreign climbers have died in a mountain accident in Switzerland near the Italian border, police said.

Police in the southern Valais region of Switzerland said the mountaineers successfully reached the 4,010-metre high Lagginhorn summit today but plunged more than several hundred metres to their deaths after beginning to descend.

A sixth member of the group who had stopped before reaching the summit immediately alerted rescue authorities, but the five climbers died at the scene.

Police had no immediate information on the cause of the accident. Details of the victims' identities and their nationalities were not immediately available. Prosecutors have opened an investigation.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.