Himlung avalanche kills at least 15 Nepali workers

An avalanche that engulfed the base camp of Himlung Peak in Nepal has claimed the lives of at least 15 Nepali climbing support workers, with one person still unaccounted for, according to the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association.

Rescue teams recovered eight more bodies from beneath the snow on Thursday, days after the avalanche struck the 7,126-metre peak near the Chinese border. The disaster occurred early on Sunday as the workers were pitching tents and fixing ropes ahead of an upcoming climbing expedition. Subsequently, an 11-member rescue team, including seasoned guides, searched through more than four metres of snow, finding two climbing guides on Sunday, two kitchen staff on Monday and three others on Tuesday. No foreign climbers were present at the base camp when the avalanche hit.

Meanwhile, the eight bodies retrieved on Thursday are expected to be flown to Kathmandu, although rescuers believe the prospects of finding the remaining missing worker alive are vanishingly slim. The tragedy adds to a grim catalogue of mountaineering disasters in Nepal in recent years; notably, avalanches killed 16 people on Mount Everest in 2014, while an earthquake claimed 18 lives in the Everest region in 2015.

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Moreover, the country is grappling with wider calamities. Authorities are still searching for people missing after a glacier-related flood on August 26 that reportedly killed more than 1,400 people, while heavy rainfall since Thursday has triggered fresh floods and landslides that have killed at least 21, according to the national disaster agency. With eight of the world's 14 highest peaks located in Nepal, mountaineering and trekking remain significant pillars of the country's tourism economy.