Seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher has suffered a serious head injury after a skiing accident.

The 44-year-old Formula One legend was injured on Sunday morning in Meribel and transported from the slopes to the Grenoble Hospital by helicopter.

As of yet, no further information on his injuries is available. "I do not know the severity of the injury," the director of the ski station told French radio station RMC. "The police are currently conducting their investigation into the origins of the fall. We do not know yet if it happened on a piste or off-piste."

A piste is an area where there is a marked path for skiing, often safer and more gentle. An off-piste, often known as backcountry skiing, is an area where slopes are steep and often in remote places where ski boundaries, ski runs and ski lifts are not present. 

Skiers were yesterday warned not to go to off-piste areas due to a high risk of avalanches, which have claimed seven lives in two days. Schumacher's accident is not thought to have been caused by an avalanche. 

The  German, who gave up his Mercedes seat to Lewis Hamilton at the end of 2012, is a keen skier and owns a chalet in the French Alps ski resort of Meribel.