This is the moment a women’s ski race ends in chaos when contestants crash into each other in a whiteout that left competitors agonisingly injured.

Up to 15 female skiers were left with gaping open fractures and other serious injuries after slamming into each other on a former Winter Olympics course in Sochi, Russia, on 8th March.

Judges had allowed the cross-country race to go ahead despite blizzard conditions that reduced visibility to less than six feet, according to local media.

Footage of the mass collision shows the skiers emerging from a cloud of dense snow and careering into each other as they come out of a bend.

Within seconds the competitors have been left shouting in agony on the piste while stewards try desperately to divert other skiers as they canon into each other.

One eyewitness told local media: “Nine girls were taken away in an ambulance.”

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A second clip shows one of the bruised and battered skiers filming herself in hospital with a thickly padded bandage covering a head injury and a neck brace.

Local media reported that the crash happened on the first lap of the race.

Another witness said that about 15 people were injured, with some of the women receiving “open fractures to their arms and legs, their faces were torn and bloodied.”

Local media reported that the men’s race was postponed to 9th March.