The dead were two teenagers, aged 14 and 16, part of a school group, and an adult skier.
The French interior minister said they had been skiing on a slope in the Deux Alpes resort that had been closed.
“We were told very, very quickly by the group of students who had escaped the avalanche, and they immediately confirmed that nobody was equipped with an avalanche detector,” said Didier Bobiller, the resort CEO.
The school group had travelled from the French city of Lyon to the resort close to the Italian border.
An local government official told reporters that a teacher had led the group onto the black-rated slope that had been closed because of a risk of avalanches.
Apart from the two teenagers who died, all other students from the group were safe.
French President Francois Hollande offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims in a tweet.
French Alps avalanche kills at least 3, including 2 school children - VIDEO
14 January 2016
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An avalanche has killed at least three people and seriously injured several others in the French Alps.
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