Rescuers search for 12 missing after Nepal avalanche kills two

Rescue teams resume search for missing people after an avalanche on Himlung Himal killed two people during severe weather.

Rescuers are searching for a dozen people swept away by an avalanche that killed at least two others on a Nepalese mountain during severe weather.

At least 10 people have been rescued from Mount Himlung, a 7,126-metre (23,380-foot) peak in north-central Nepal after the avalanche hit on Sunday.

The remains of the two people who were killed were airlifted on Monday to Kathmandu airport and transported to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.

“Two bodies were found as rescuers worked until 6pm (12:30 GMT) last night,” Tul Singh Gurung, president of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, told the AFP news agency. “The search continues for 14 expedition workers who are still missing.”

A team of eight mountain guides is involved in the search operation, he added.

All those killed or missing were Nepali nationals. The avalanche hit as they were at a base camp preparing for foreign clients to arrive and climb the peak during the autumn climbing season that began this month.

Flooding and landslides were reported in the Manang district, where the mountain is located, over the weekend, both caused by heavy rainfall, the district administration said.

The avalanche comes as the government issued warnings of severe weather across the entire Himalayan nation.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said 21 other people were killed and five more are missing in different parts of the country between Thursday and Sunday.

Nepal is recovering from devastating flooding in August that swept away several villages, killing more than 1,400 people.

According to NDRRMA, 5,500 people were still missing and 13,795 had been rescued.

Researchers from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said in a report released last week that the disaster was not caused by a single extreme weather event but rather a “compound crisis” shaped by long-term warming, glacier retreat, permafrost thaw and geological instability.