Three climbers, including a foreigner, have died and eight others are missing after an avalanche struck a climbing expedition on a mountaintop in Nepal, police confirmed on Monday.
The incident took place on the Yalung Ri Himal mountain, which rises to 5,630 meters (18,470 feet) in Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu.
Five foreigners are among the eight missing persons, police official Gyan Kumar Mahato told Reuters. The nationalities of the deceased or missing foreigners were not immediately known.
Four injured climbers have been evacuated to a nearby village, and a search, including by helicopter, continues for those still missing, Mr Mahato added.
“We have also sent ground search and rescue teams from the army and police and are awaiting developments.”
Yalung Ri is located in the Rolwaling Valley in northeastern Nepal and climbers there encounter a mix of rock, ice and snow.
It comes after five German mountaineers died after being hit by an avalanche in South Tyrol, northern Italy, rescuers said on Sunday.
Three victims – two men and a woman – were found dead on Saturday, while the bodies of two other missing people, a man and his 17-year-old daughter, were found on Sunday morning.
“They had been dragged to the lower part of the gully where the avalanche occurred,” said Alpine rescue spokesman Federico Catania. “Rescue teams are now returning to the valley, partly in view of the deteriorating weather conditions at high altitude.”
The mountaineers, all Germans, were hit by the avalanche around 4pm on Saturday while climbing near the Cima Vertana, in the Ortles Mountains, at an altitude of more than 3,500 meters (11,500 feet). It is unknown why the climb
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