A sunny holiday weekend drew a crush of skiers to Austria’s slopes, with crowded lift lines and parking lots making a mockery of social distancing rules.
Twelve British tourists are being investigated by Swiss police for allegedly escaping a hastily-imposed Covid quarantine.
The skiers were among hundreds of Britons on holiday in the luxury Alpine resort of Verbier when the Swiss government suddenly announced a retroactive 10-day quarantine.
It was reported that many fled the resort, in the canton of Valais, rather than going into lockdown. Hoteliers said some guests left with no warning under cover of darkness.
Among the Britons who fled was top Brexiteer Andy Wigmore, a spokesman for Leave.EU campaign co-founder Arron Banks.
He was holidaying at the Wengen ski resort when he received a message from Swiss authorities informing him of the mandatory quarantine coming into effect on December 22.
It s unclear whether the TikTok video was staged or not.
TikTok/Janelle Elise Flom
A TikTok video uploaded by Janelle Elise Flom in late November shows a woman repeatedly flipping her long blonde hair over her seat back, blocking the TV screen for the passenger behind her.
Things quickly escalate when the woman behind her squishes a wad of gum into her hair, followed by a lollipop. She then dunks the hair into a mug of coffee and uses nail clippers to cut some of it. Whose side are you on?! Flom captioned the video, which has been viewed more than 115.1 million times at the time of writing.
| UPDATED: 10:29, Tue, Dec 29, 2020
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Only around 12 British tourists out of 420 have stayed in the Verbier ski resort, Valais in the Bagnes municipality, for a 10 day quarantine period. Those who left the resort despite the mandatory order risk a 10,000 Swiss franc (£8,300) fine. The order was put in place after the new strain of coronavirus, believed to have originated in Kent, led to new rules for travellers from the UK.