At least 15 Nepali workers were killed when an avalanche buried a mountain camp they were preparing in central Nepal for foreign climbers, a rescue official said on Thursday.
The avalanche buried the base camp of the 7,126-metre (23,379-foot) Himlung Himal mountain in northern Manang district over the weekend, where Nepali workers were pitching tents and fixing ropes. One worker remains missing.
Rescuers have so far recovered 15 bodies from the site, said Tul Singh Gurung, president of Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA).
Eight bodies were recovered from under the snow on Thursday, while the other seven were retrieved earlier this week.
“The bodies that were recovered today are expected to be brought by a helicopter to Kathmandu,” Gurung told Reuters.
He said the chances of finding the missing worker were dim and that the rescue operation was likely to wind up.
The foreign climbers had not reached the site at the time of the avalanche.
Every year, thousands of visitors travel to Nepal to visit or climb its mountains, creating work for tens of thousands of people as guides, porters and other staff, as well as in tourism-related jobs.
However, as climate change accelerates the melting of glaciers and ice, the work is becoming increasingly perilous.