Three climbers, including a foreign national, have died and eight others are missing after an avalanche struck a climbing expedition on a Himalayan peak in Nepal, police confirmed on Monday.
The incident occurred on Yalung Ri Himal mountain, which rises to 5,630 metres (18,470 feet) in the Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu.
Among the eight missing individuals are five foreign nationals, police official Gyan Kumar Mahato told Reuters. The nationalities of the deceased or the missing foreigners were not immediately known.
Four injured climbers have been evacuated to a nearby village, and a search operation, including by helicopter, is continuing for those still unaccounted for, Mr Mahato added.
âWe have also dispatched ground search-and-rescue teams from the army and police and are awaiting (developments).â
Yalung Ri is located in the Rolwaling Valley of 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, in northern Italy, rescuers said on Sunday.
Three victims â two men and a woman â had already been recovered dead on Saturday, while the bodies of two other missing people, a man and his 17-year-old daughter, were found on Sunday morning.
âThey had been dragged to the lower part of the gully where the avalanche occurred,â said Alpine rescue spokesman Federico Catania. âRescue teams are now returning to the valley, also considering the worsening weather conditions at high altitude.â
The mountaineers, all Germans, were hit by the avalanche at about 4 p.m. 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 clim
