Nepal avalanche kills nine climbers

An avalanche swept away climbers and their camps on the world's eighth highest mountain in north-western Nepal on Sunday, killing at least nine, with another four missing, police said.
Police inspector Basant Mishra said the bodies of a German climber and a Nepali guide were recovered from the snow on the 8,163-metre (26,781-ft) Mount Manaslu, about 60 miles north-west of Kathmandu.
"Rescue pilots have spotted seven other bodies on the mountain," Mishra said. At least five injured people had been rescued by helicopters and flown to Kathmandu, he said.
The accident took place at 7,000 metres, making it difficult for land rescue teams to reach, the Guardian reports.
Helicopters were dispatched to the remote area to look for those missing after the early morning accident, but cloud and fog were complicating rescue efforts, Mishra said.
Details of the avalanche and the nationality of the missing climbers were not clear.
Hundreds of foreign climbers flock every year to Himalayan peaks in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest. September marks the beginning of the autumn climbing season.
In the last major accident in the area, at least 42 people including 17 foreigners, were killed in heavy snowfall in the Mount Everest region in 1995.