The Hindu : 5 climbers killed in avalanche

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

International

International - Globescan

5 climbers killed in avalanche

LIMA: Rescuers on Tuesday found the bodies of five foreigners — one woman and four men — killed a day earlier in an avalanche near the summit of Peru's glacier-capped Alpamayo mountain, police said. Officials and local climbing guides believe eight climbers — four Germans, two Israelis, one Dutch and an Argentine — were killed in the accident. Police Col. Luis Garate, who directs Peru's high mountain rescue programme in Lima, said police and civilian guides had found the bodies of five climbers, including one Israeli woman he identified as Ofira Zucker. He didn't give details on the nationalities of the others found. The search for the other three climbers would continue on Wednesday, he said. The climbers were about 490 feet short of reaching Alpamayo's 19,510-foot (5,947-metre) summit when they were swept away by a wall of broken ice at around 9 a.m. local time on Monday, said police Lt. Henry Paz, director of the high mountain rescue unit in nearby Yungay, 330 km north of Lima. A rescue team went out on foot at 9 p.m. on Monday and reached the site of the accident by 3 p.m. on Tuesday. — AP

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