Rescuers Race to Find 12 Missing After Deadly Avalanche Strikes Nepal’s Mount Himlung

Rescue teams have resumed their search for a dozen people swept away by an avalanche that killed at least two on Mount Himlung in north-central Nepal, officials said Monday, as severe weather continues to hamper operations across the Himalayan nation.

The avalanche struck Sunday at a base camp on the 7,126-meter (23,380-foot) peak, where a group of Nepali expedition workers were preparing for the arrival of foreign clients ahead of the autumn climbing season. At least 10 people have been rescued so far.

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

A team of eight mountain guides is leading the recovery effort. The remains of the two victims were airlifted to Kathmandu on Monday and taken to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.

The disaster occurred amid heavy rainfall that triggered flooding and landslides in the surrounding Manang district, where the mountain is located. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) has issued severe weather warnings for the entire country.

Between Thursday and Sunday, weather-related incidents killed 21 people and left five others missing across Nepal, according to the NDRRMA. The latest avalanche compounds the nation’s ongoing recovery from catastrophic flooding in August that swept away entire villages, killing more than 1,400 people. Authorities report that 5,500 people remain missing from that disaster, while 13,795 have been rescued.

A report released last week by the World Weather Attribution group characterized the August catastrophe not as a single extreme event, but as a “compound crisis” driven by long-term warming, glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, and geological instability.

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