Accident in the Himalayas: Avalanche hits base camp – at least 15 dead

At least 15 people were killed in an avalanche accident in Nepal, as the Reuters news agency reports with reference to the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA). So far, rescue workers have recovered 15 bodies from the accident site in the Himalayas, said NNMGA President Tul Singh Gurung.

Eight bodies were recovered from the snow on Thursday and the other seven earlier this week. One person is still missing.

The avalanche hit the base camp at around 4,900 meters on the 7,126-meter-high Himlung Himal mountain near the border with Tibet on Sunday morning, a police spokesman told the dpa news agency. According to the Association of Nepalese Expedition Operators, the missing people were Nepalese employees of two expedition companies.

The subsequent search had to be temporarily interrupted due to weather conditions, but will continue.

"The bodies recovered today are expected to be taken to Kathmandu by helicopter," NNMGA President Gurung told Reuters on Thursday. He added that the chances of finding the one missing worker were slim. The rescue operation is expected to be discontinued. At the time of the avalanche, the mountaineers had not yet reached the site.

With an estimated 16 fatalities, it is the worst mountaineering accident in Nepal in more than ten years. In 2014, 16 people died in an avalanche accident on Mount Everest. A year later, 18 people died in an earthquake on Mount Everest.

Nepal is home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world. Mountaineering and hiking tourism is an important source of income for the state; tens of thousands of jobs depend on it.

However, the work is becoming increasingly dangerous due to climate change, which is accelerating the melting of glaciers and ice.