Snow crimps effort to reach survivors of avalanche in Indian Himalayas

By Saurabh Sharma

LUCKNOW (Reuters) -Snow was complicating rescuers’ efforts on Wednesday to reach a group of mountaineers hit by an avalanche in the Indian Himalayas, which killed at least 10, with more than 20 missing, a regional police official told Reuters.

The group, consisting of 34 trainees preparing for high altitude navigation who were accompanied by seven instructors, was caught in the avalanche at 8.45 a.m. on Tuesday.

“Reaching the spot is a bit difficult for the teams because there is a lot of snow in the area,” Ashok Kumar, the police chief of India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, said by telephone.

“The mountaineers might have been pushed to isolated spots.”

The group had been making its way back from a mountain peak, Draupadi ka Danda-II, at 5,670 metres (18,602 ft), when the avalanche struck.

Eight had been rescued, Kumar added.

(Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Clarence Fernandez)