Avalanche Death Toll Now 17

Five more people died in avalanches in France Friday, bringing the toll to 17 killed this week, officials said.

Police said three people were swept away in an off-bounds area near Les Arcs and two others died in another avalanche in the fashionable resort of Val d'Isere in the French Alps.

An Australian man and a British woman were among the victims.

The local government said rescuers dug out the body of a 15-year-old boy from an avalanche that destroyed 17 chalets Tuesday in the villages of Le Tour and Montroc in the Mont Blanc region. He is the twelfth victim to be found.

Rescuers said all missing people had now been accounted for and they were not searching for further victims.

The teenager's body was found as funeral services for three of the victims - a ski safety expert, his wife and their 3-year-old granddaughter - were being held in nearby Chamonix.

All 12 victims of the Mont Blanc avalanche were French nationals.

Not only was it the worst avalanche in the area in almost a century, it couldn't have come at a worse time. School vacations had just begun in France and ski resorts were packed.

The avalanche demolished chalets as it came roaring down the slope at more than 60 mph. It then dumped the wreckage a quarter of a mile away.

Witnesses said it sounded like an explosion and felt like the end of the world, CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth reports.

Nathan Wallace of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., recalled that the avalanche was like an earthquake: no hint of trouble until disaster extinguished daylight.

He said that suddenly "we were sitting underneath, a concrete block above our heads and we were alive. But then we heard this thing on top and didn't know for an hour and a half if the diggers were going to cause the roof to cave in on top of us."