17 trekkers killed in Nepal, Indian's among bodies found

The body of an Indian was among nine found Wednesday after 17 trekkers died in the Nepal Himalayas this week, official sources said.

The Indian and four Canadians died Tuesday while trekking in a remote area of Manang district, police sub-inspector Narayan Datta Chapagain told Efe news agency, adding that their bodies were found Wednesday. Efe did not reveal the name of any of the victims.

Three other Canadians and a Nepalese of the same group were rescued by a military helicopter.

In a separate incident, 12 mountaineers were killed Tuesday after being trapped by a snowstorm near Throung La pass, the highest point of the Annapurna trekking circuit (17,779 feet), military spokesperson Niranjan Shrestha said.

Only the bodies of the two Polish nationals, an Israeli and a Nepalese have been found so far, and the nationality of the people who are still buried under the snow was yet unknown.

Thirty-eight other people trapped on Nepal's Himalayan mountains have been rescued by two military helicopters, Shrestha said.

After the recent Hudhud cyclone which killed 24 people in India, Nepal has been experiencing unusually heavy rainfall and snowfall in the middle of the high trekking season.

Fatal accidents in the Himalayan region are relatively common.

An avalanche killed a German and an Italian mountaineer last September during a climbing expedition at a 26,289 feet-high mountain in the Himalayan range.

In April, another avalanche killed 12 Nepalese sherpas and seriously injured three others when they were heading to one of the base camps on Mount Everest. - IANS