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KATHMANDOU (AP) – At least seven mountaineers were killed after the storm hit their camp at the top of the Himalayas in western Nepal, police said Saturday during the worst natural disaster caused by climbing the country in two years.
Police chief Bir Bahadur Budhamagar said villagers at the Mount Gurja base camp site, a summit at 23,600 feet, spotted seven bodies on the slopes of the mountains on Saturday. Nine mountaineers had been reported missing.
"The bodies have not been identified. Depending on the color of their skin, four bodies must be Korean mountaineers, two of Nepalese, "said Budhamagar to Reuters, from the district of Myagdi, where the site is located.
"We do not know if the seventh body found was that of a Korean or a Nepalese," Budhamagar said.
The remote area is hard to reach on foot, he said, and locals are still looking for two more mountaineers missing after the storm.
A Ministry of Tourism official, Rameshwar Niraula, said rescue helicopter pilots had also spotted the bodies but could not land because of bad weather.
"The rescuers will try to recover the bodies on Sunday," Niraula said.
Wangchu Sherpa, head of the Trekking Camp Nepal agency who provided local support to the South Korean team, said the camp had been destroyed, citing information reported by the pilot of the camp. rescue helicopter sent to search for the missing group on Saturday.
The region is located about 135 km northwest of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
Nepal is home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, and the fall climbing season is at its peak. The income of foreign climbers is an important source of income for the cash – strapped country.
