Five Russians killed climbing mountain in Nepal: tourism official

Kathmandu: Five Russian mountaineers were killed while climbing in Nepal, a tourism official said Tuesday, two days after the team lost contact while...

Kathmandu: Five Russian mountaineers were killed while climbing in Nepal, a tourism official said Tuesday, two days after the team lost contact while on the world's seventh-highest mountain, Dhaulagiri.

Rakesh Gurung, from Nepal's tourism department, said the team went missing late on the evening of October 6 during an attempt to summit the 8,167 metre (26,795 feet) high Himalayan peak.

"Five dead bodies were discovered by a helicopter rescue team," Gurung told AFP. "They fell from 7,700 meters."

He said one climber who quit the summit attempt had been rescued from the mountain, and had "been admitted to hospital" in the capital Kathmandu.

Hundreds of people from around the world travel to the Himalayas each year for the autumn climbing season in Nepal.