Avalanche kills mountaineer, injures 6 in Pakistan

 A Pakistani montaineer was killed while six others, including foreigners, were injured when an avalanche hit an expedition team while they were scaling a 5,300-metre high peak in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, the media reported on Tuesday.

Adventure Tours of Pakistan, which organised the expedition, said if weather permitted two army helicopters would start rescue operation to airlift the injured mountaineers and the body on Tuesday, reports Dawn news.

A seven-member Pakistan-Italian friendship expedition and the local mountaineer had started their adventure to climb an unknown 5,300-metre peak in the Hindukush mountain range in Ishkoman valley on June 2.

Chief executive officer of Adventure Tours of Pakistan Naiknam Karim told Dawn that the climbers were hit by a snow avalanche at an altitude of over above 5,000 metres on Monday morning.

"The details were still very sketchy because of lack of communication from the remote area. However, I am in contact with the affected climbers through satellite communications," he said.

Karim said the injured climbers were not in a critical condition, but they were unable to move further as their equipment, ropes and tents had been taken away by the snow avalanche. IANS