A DORSET schoolgirl is in intensive care after crashing through a ski hut window while skiing in the Austrian Alps.

India Furness, 9, from Cerne Abbas, was airlifted to hospital after the incident where she lost control in icy conditions and went through a safety net, over a wooden veranda and wooden fence and through a window of a ski hut.

She ended up badly injured in a corner of the hut in the Austrian ski resort of Goldried in Matrei, East Tyrol.

The Dorchester Middle School pupil was on holiday with her parents Nigel and Helen Furness, and her sisters Scarlet, 14, and Alice, 12, when the accident happened.

Her family called the rescue services and she was airlifted to hospital in Innsbruck with head injuries which doctors described as serious but not life-threatening.

Austrian Police spokesman Walter Moser said: “The snow is extremely icy at the moment. It makes it very difficult to slow down and she seems to have picked up too much speed and lost control as a result.

“What probably saved her life was the fact that she was so well equipped – she had full eye protection on and a crash helmet when she went through the window.”

Emergency doctor Wolfgang Kratzer, who was with the rescue helicopter and treated India, said: “Judging by how far she was inside the hut she was going way too fast.

“She was lying on the floor in the far corner of the room where she had landed.”

India’s grandparents Bob and Mary Stenhouse, also from Cerne Abbas, said that India’s parents were with her in hospital.

Mrs Stenhouse said: “She’s in a really good hospital in Innsbruck. I think she has been very lucky.”

She added: “As far as we know everything’s going to be all right.”

Mrs Stenhouse added that the family were all very experienced skiers and had all the right kit for skiing with them.

She said: “They go every year, they are not novices. I just think it was the conditions of the snow really.”

Describing all their granddaughters as ‘brilliant’ and India as a ‘lovely little girl’ who enjoyed playing the violin and going swimming, Mrs and Mr Stenhouse thanked the rescuers and everyone that had helped India.

Mrs Stenhouse said she was in touch with the family in Austria and they were all just hoping she would be ok.

She said: “We’re hoping everything’s going to be okay. You can only be thankful really.”