A teenager has died in a horror ski accident in northern Italy as his parents watched on helplessly.

       The 14-year-old British schoolboy crashed into a treee and suffered severed chest injuries while on a red run.

       The boy had worn a helmet but paramedics worked on him for more than half an hour to no avail, despite using a defibrillator.

       Francesco Cataldo Giorgi, vice president of the Happy Ski school in Cortina, said the tragedy was "a matter of cruel bad luck."

       "Had he fallen just a few metres earlier or later, he may have escaped unharmed. But in this sport, one wrong fall in the wrong place can be fatal.

       "We must always exercise extreme caution," he told Corriere del Veneto.

       The incident took place on the Falzarego red run - an intermediate-level slope spanning 3.5km from Lagazuoi toward Col Gallina.

       Witnesses claim the boy had lots of momentum before hitting a dip that lurched him forward uncontrollably, sending him crashing into a tree at high speed.

       The family had been on a break in the Bolzano region with two other families. They had only just started their day's skiing when the terrible tragedy took place at around 9:30am.

       The boy's grief-stricken parents are receiving medical and psychological support, as they confront the horrendous task of repatriating their son's body back to the UK.

       Investigators are analysing whether there were any hidden dangers or unusual features on the piste that may have contributed to the heart-wrenching accident.