This is the heart-stopping moment a snowboarder is nearly killed while out and about in a popular French mountain resort.

Thomas Kray, from Beirut, Lebanon, was going down one of his favourite runs in Tignes on Sunday last week.

But everything started to go horribly wrong half way down the run when he saw the snow start to crack around him.

Realising he was in the epicentre of a potentially deadly avalanche, Thomas reached for the airbag strapped to his back for just such an occurence - but there was a problem.

As he reached out to grab the handle of the device with his right hand, it slipped at the crucial moment. 

Tumbling beneath the tsunami of snow he only just managed to grab the lever at the last second.

'Thank God I could reach the handle with my right hand,' he told AP. 

'I fell under the snow as you would fall underwater.

'The airbag kept me afloat and I could ride down unharmed after the avalanche stopped,' he said.

Kray, who has already had two brushes with avalanches in the past, said he knew he was 'safer' with the airbag deployed and could do nothing else but ride it out.

'There's little you can do after you get caught in an avalanche,' he added.

Luckily for the snowboarder he managed to escape with little more than a bruised finger.

According to Kray, he decided to post the video online as a reminder of the dangers avalanches pose to skiers.

So far this season, 22 people have died in accidents in the French Alps.

Avalanche airbags work by providing buoyancy, much like a float. They keep skiers and snowboarders safe by preventing them from being dragged under the snow. 

Wearing an avalanche airbag on your back when skiing or snowboarding off-piste is estimated to improve survival chances by 50 per cent.