Nine swept to death in Nepal avalanche

Handout / Reuters

Rescue team members carry a survivor (center) after an avalanche at Mount Manaslu Base Camp, Sunday.

By Reuters

KATHMANDU - An avalanche swept away climbers and their camps on the world's eighth highest mountain in northwestern Nepal on Sunday, killing at least nine climbers, with another four missing, police said.

Five climbers were rescued. One of the victims is German but the nationality of the other missing climbers was not immediately known.

Police inspector Basant Mishra said the bodies of the German climber and a Nepali guide were recovered from the snow on the 26,781-foot Mount Manaslu, about 60 miles northwest of Kathmandu.

"Rescue pilots have spotted seven other bodies on the mountain," Mishra said. At least five injured people had been rescued by helicopters and flown to Kathmandu, he said.

The accident took place at 22,950 feet, making it difficult for land rescue teams to reach.

Helicopters were dispatched to the remote area to look for those missing after the early morning accident, but cloud and fog were complicating rescue efforts, Mishra said.

Details of the avalanche were not yet clear.

Hundreds of foreign climbers flock every year to Himalayan peaks in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest. September marks the beginning of the autumn climbing season which runs through November.

In the last major accident in the area, at least 42 people including 17 foreigners, were killed in heavy snowfall in the Mount Everest region in 1995.?

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/23/14045461-nine-swept-to-death-in-nepal-avalanche?lite

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