The BBC's Lee Carter in Toronto: "Official inquiry will start tomorrow"

The police say they have now accounted for everyone.

Around 400 people were celebrating New Year when the avalanche crashed into a gymnasium in the remote Inuit settlement of Kangiqsualujjuaq, in northern Quebec - more than 1,500km north of Montreal.

The disaster struck just after midnight on Thursday night, while partygoers feasted on a traditional meal of caribou, seal, fish and oat cakes after enthusiastic square-dancing.

Marc Lavalle is helping to coordinate the rescue efforts

A wall of snow crashed through the gymnasium, burying it in around 3m of snow.

One survivor said the impact sounded like a thunderclap; another described using a frying pan to dig for those buried in the snow.

The authorities are investigating reports that a celebratory gun salute about 90 minutes before the avalanche may have loosened the snow. A paediatrician at the hospital said that doctors were using two interpreters to communicate with some of the younger ethnic Inuit victims.

She said the range of injuries was mainly orthopaedic - there had been a loss of a finger, some head injuries, abdominal trauma, and fractures, but only one crush injury.

Tons of snow

The remote community is said to be devastated by the accident

"It was like an explosion," said school principal Jean Leduc. "You heard an immense crack and the wall was flying into pieces and, the next thing you knew, the gym was entirely covered in snow."

The search initially found six of the dead. The bodies of a mother and her two young children were discovered buried under tons of snow several hours later.

Five of the victims were children under eight-years old.

Airlift delayed

Blizzards delayed efforts to airlift survivors to hospital and doctors had to call in translators as many of the injured spoke neither French nor English.

Two injured boys arrive at hospital in Montreal

Conditions have since improved with temperatures during the day of around -16 C and winds of 40kph considered to be mild weather.

Twelve of the injured are in hospital in the town of Kuujjuaq, 300km away, whilst another 12 were airlifted to hospitals in Montreal, because of a lack of medical facilities in the remote region.

A spokesman for Montreal General Hospital said all the injured there were "in a critical condition but stable".