The four missing Koreans were teachers taking part in a program to teach kids in remote areas of Nepal:
This photo of Deurali of the Himalayas` Annapurna taken on Jan. 18, 2020. (South Jeolla Province Office of Education)
Six people, including four South Koreans, remain missing in Nepal’s northwestern Himalayan region after an avalanche hit the area on Friday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
The Nepali authorities said they have mobilized an additional six to 10 specialized police officers for a search mission that is underway. But heavy snowfall and rough weather conditions are making the search difficult.
Three search teams consisting of 13 locals who are familiar with the terrain and seven police officers have already conducted a land and air reconnaissance, but could not find the missing trekkers.
This is a pretty horrible accident that has killed five Korean mountain climbers in Nepal:
At least nine climbers, including five Korean nationals, are reported to have been killed in a massive landslide at Mt. Gurja in western Nepal.
The Himalayan Times reported on Saturday that the organizer of the expedition team said that the climbers were buried after the landslide hit their base camp.
According to AFP, a Nepalese police spokesman confirmed that a South Korean expedition was among a group of eight people killed in a snowstorm. The spokesman did not confirm the number of South Koreans killed or the details of the landslide.
The victims include Mountaineer Kim Chang-ho, the first Korean to summit the fourteen peaks above eight-thousand meters without supplemental oxygen.
The climbers were awaiting fair weather when a heavy snowstorm triggered the landslide that buried their base camp. [KBS World Radio]
Members of South Korea’s emergency response team arrive at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, on April 27, 2015, before heading to Nepal to assist South Korean citizens in the earthquake-stricken country. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit two days earlier has devastated Nepal, leaving more than 2,000 people dead with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 4,500. (Yonhap)
