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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canadian among missing in avalanche, website says

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 09/24/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Simrik Air / The Associated Press An injured avalanche victim (centre) is rescued at the base camp on Mount Manaslu, Nepal. (CP)

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Officials say at least nine people are dead and several others missing, including a Canadian, after an avalanche hit climbers on a high Himalayan peak in Nepal Sunday.

Many of the climbers were French or German but the U.K.-based The Telegraph website reported one of the missing people is Canadian.

Dipendra Paude of Nepal's tourism ministry, which controls all international climbing expeditions, told The Telegraph the dead climbers were from Spain, Germany and Nepal. The Telegraph said the missing included five French nationals, a Canadian and an Italian climber.

Chrystiane Roy, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman in Ottawa, could not immediately confirm a Canadian was among those missing. But Roy said Foreign Affairs officials have been in contact with authorities in Nepal.

"We are following the developments closely and stand ready to provide consular assistance should there be a need," she said Sunday.

Police official Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said the bodies of a Nepalese guide and a German man were recovered and rescue pilots had spotted seven other bodies on the slopes of Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal, the eighth-highest mountain in the world.

In Madrid, Spain's Foreign Ministry said one of those killed was Spanish. The identities of the other victims were still being confirmed. Ten climbers survived the avalanche, but many were injured and flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters, Kuwar said.

The avalanche hit the climbers at a camp at 7,000 metres early in the morning as they were preparing to head to the 8,156-metre summit.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 24, 2012 A9

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