Indian soldiers recover bodies of 7 missing international climbers

An Indian official says paramilitary soldiers have reached the bodies of seven of eight members from a team of international climbers believed killed on a notoriously dangerous Himalayan mountain.

An administrator of Uttarakhand state, Vijay Jogdande, says the soldiers reached the bodies today, but they had yet to be identified. The bodies will now be brought from where they were found at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) to the base camp.

Ground expeditions were launched after helicopter missions failed to reach the area.

Veteran British mountaineer Martin Moran led the team of four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and an Indian on the expedition on Nanda Devi East. Moran’s Scotland-based company said contact with the team was lost on May 26 following an avalanche.

— AP