It was the last run of the day at Feldberg ski resort in Baden-Württemberg. The lifts were already closed and the pistes were practically empty, the Badische Zeitung reports.

The crash also happened on a beginners’ slope, where the gradient of the hillside is gentle.

“It's a really flat slope – a so-called beginners’ slope. It’s hard to explain how it could have happened on that part of the piste,” Adrian Probst from the local mountain rescue told news agency DPA.

But Probst said that it was still possible to reach speeds of up to 100 km/h at the site of the accident.

The skiers were both male. One was a 29-year-old from Alsace in France, the other a 30-year-old from Stuttgart. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung both men were wearing helmets.

Emergency services were already on the mountain and got to the men quickly, but after half an hour attempts to resuscitate them were given up.

Further details of how the two men could have fatally collided with one another on a half-empty beginners’ slope remain unclear.

Police closed off the scene of the crash on Sunday afternoon to further investigate its cause and will be speaking to witnesses to build up a clearer picture of the incident.

Feldberg’s mayor Stefan Wirbser told the Badische Zeitung that in his memory only one person had ever died in a collision at the resort before.

The last death at the resort – Baden-Württemberg’s most popular winter sports location – was a skier who suffered a heart attack three years ago. the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.