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Bodies of 7 missing climbers have been recovered in the Himalayas

Posted at 4:47 PM, Jun 23, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-23 16:47:58-04

(CNN) — The bodies of seven climbers who went missing in the Indian Himalayas late last month were recovered by rescue teams on Sunday, according to a tweet from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Eight climbers — four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and their Indian liaison officer — went missing near Nanda Devi East, one of the highest peaks in India, on May 26. It’s believed they were struck by an avalanche.

The search for the eighth climber will resume Monday, the ITBP said.

According to Facebook posts from the group’s expedition company, the climbers were attempting to scale a previously unclimbed and unnamed peak.

Indian authorities previously said the group did not have permission to do so. Even if the climbers had asked, Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande told CNN, authorities “would not have given permission.”

The leader of the group was identified as British mountain expert Martin Moran. The missing eight climbers had been part of a larger team of 12, each of whom had a permit to summit Nanda Devi East, according to Jogdande.

Four of the climbers went to climb Nanda Devi East and returned to base camp, while the other eight went to climb the unnamed peak.

After the eight-person group failed to return to base camp on May 26, the authorities were alerted on May 31, Jogdande said.

A search team spotted five of the climbers’ bodies in early June, when they appeared to be partially buried in the snow from an avalanche in different locations. Jogdande said at that time that the “chances of survival are almost zero now.”

The identities of the other missing climbers have not been officially released.

The-CNN-Wire
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Originally Published: 23 JUN 19 16:18 ET