Ten people are confirmed dead after an avalanche struck a climbing expedition in the Indian Himalayas, police said Wednesday, with rescuers retrieving six more bodies and 18 others still missing.
"Rescue teams have recovered 10 bodies," the Uttarakhand state police force said on Twitter, adding that a total of 14 people had been rescued.
Several dozen climbing trainees were caught in Tuesday morning's snowslide near the summit of Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
"The weather is alright now and rescue operations have resumed," Uttarakhand state disaster agency spokesperson Ridhim Aggarwal told AFP.
Ten climbers were confirmed dead on Tuesday after members of the expedition were stuck in a crevasse after the avalanche hit.
Local media outlets reported that rescuers had spotted an additional six bodies before bad weather stopped the search, but the state disaster agency has not yet raised its official toll.
The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering said the group included 34 of its trainees and seven instructors.
Senior disaster management official Devendra Singh Patwal told AFP that two air force helicopters had been sent to the region to assist with the search.
Fatal climbing accidents are common on the treacherous terrain of the Himalayas, home to Everest and several of the world's highest peaks.
In August, the body of a mountaineer was recovered two months after he fell into a crevasse while crossing a glacier in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.
And last week, renowned US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson's body was found on the slopes of Nepal's Manaslu peak after she went missing skiing down the world's eighth-highest mountain.
On the day of Nelson's accident, an avalanche hit on the 8,163-metre (26,781-foot) mountain, killing Nepali climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen others who were later rescued.
Although no substantial research has been done on the impacts of climate change on mountaineering risks in the Himalayas, climbers have reported crevasses widening, running water on previously snowy slopes, and the increasing formation of glacial lakes.
