Trekkers killed Himalaya - 17 trekkers were killed in Nepal on Tuesday due to a deadly snowstorm and avalanche that hit the region. The victims from the trekkers killed Himalaya incident included nine foreigners and eight Nepalis who were on a popular hiking route.
Officials also announced on Wednesday that more than 100 others involved in the incident remain out of contact.
Nine foreigners from the trekkers killed Himalaya incident were an Indian and four Canadians. The trekkers were headed up a remote area of Manang district, district police official Narayan Datta Chapagain told Efe news agency.
Chapagain kept mum about the name of any of the victims, and while the details of their deaths are still unknown, he said they likely got killed of heavy snow.
Three other Canadians and a Nepalese from the same group going up the treacherous mountain have been rescued via military helicopter, reports NDTV.
As of the current moment, only the bodies of two Polish nationals, an Israeli and a Nepalese from the trekkers killed Himalaya tragedy were found. The nationality of the other buried trekkers also remains unknown.
According to the AFP, the tail end of Cyclone Hudhud, which also thrashed through India's east coast, has triggered severe weather and inevitably resulted in the trekkers killed Himalaya occurrence.
Tons of heavy snow caused by the Tuesday cyclone hit trekking groups on the Annapurna circuit, as well as mountaineers on Mount Dhaulagiri in central Nepal.
The weather reportedly cleared by Wednesday in the remote Mustang and Manang districts, and rescuers were able to find 27 stranded trekkers despite having to travel through waist-deep snow.
According to officials, more people are missing, which means the death toll of 17 from the trekkers killed Himalaya event could rise.
There are around 168 foreign tourists registered to hike in the area. Authorities are now putting in their best efforts at trying to track the rest, said rescue effort head and police official Ganesh Rai.
The recent event of trekkers killed Himalaya is now considered one of the deadliest tragedies in Nepal's history.
Known for its stunning mountain ranges, including Mount Everest, Nepal's Annapurna region is visited by thousands of tourists every October since that is the time when weather conditions are most favourable for hiking.
However, after the recent Hudhud cyclone hit the country, parts of central and western Nepal has been experiencing unusually heavy downpours during the high trekking season, and thus resulting in the trekkers killed Himalaya incident. Hudhud has reportedly killed 24 people in India already.
Fatal accidents, such as the trekkers killed Himalaya incident are relatively common in the region.
Last September, an avalanche resulted in the death of a German and an Italian mountaineer while climbing a 26,289 feet-high mountain in the Himalayan range.
Another avalanche killed 12 Nepalese sherpas In April. Three others suffered from severe injuries while heading to one of Mount Everest's base camps.
The nation's 26 million people and relies mostly on tourism revenues taken from climbing and trekking expeditions.
The accessibility of the challenging and dramatic Himalayan landscape has attracted tons of tourists to Nepal, which attracted 102,000 foreigners last year and raked in about $3 million from Everest climbers during high season.
The government of Nepal said it aims to welcome some 2 million visitors annually by 2020, banking on tourism to sustain its economy.
However, because of recent deaths from treks, like the 17 who died from the trekkers killed Himalaya incident, most of the nearly 500 who planned to climb in 2014 had abandoned their climbs, reports CNN.
The trekkers killed Himalaya tragedy and several other incidents which resulted in major death tolls could possibly cause the closure of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain, which could render a huge blow to the impoverished region.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
