A drunk French skier has died after falling 130 feet through a gondola window and impaling himself on a piste marker.

The incident took place at the Les Deux Alpes ski resort in the Isere department, in the south-eastern French region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, on the afternoon of Saturday, 1st April, at around 4:30pm.

The man, who has not yet been named but who was said to be 29 years old and from Annonay in the Ardeche department in south-eastern France, reportedly died under the eyes of his 23-year-old friend, also unnamed, but reportedly from the Isere department.

The pair were allegedly drunk and had been messing around when the victim threw himself against the plexiglass window of the Jandri Express gondola they were travelling in alone on the Bellecombe piste.

The plexiglass window of the gondola, which can reportedly carry up to 20 people, gave way and the man, who reportedly measured 1 metre 90 (6.2 feet) and weighed over 100 kilogrammes (220 lbs), plummeted some 40 metres (130 feet) to his death, impaling himself on the piste marker.

The emergency services could only note that the young man had died, with the police opening an investigation and running tests for drugs and alcohol on the body.

The Grenoble public prosecutor, named as Eric Vaillant, has said that the young men had been drinking.

Fabrice Boutet, the head of the SATA Group, the company in charge of the ski lift, said that the gondola was in perfect condition and had “passed all the security tests”.

He added: “It was the window that broke. It’s terrible. It’s the first time that such an accident has happened at the ski resort.”

The investigation is ongoing.