A nine-strong expedition team from South Korea was surprised by a violent snowstorm on Mount Gurja in the Himalayas. All members of the team died. It is the worst disaster in the Himalayas in recent years.
"The four South Koreans and four foreign members of the expedition team were blown off a cliff in the unusually strong winds and died," said the South Korean foreign minister in a statement.
Helicopter pilot Siddartha Gurung was presented with a picture of the devastation: “Everything was gone, the tents devastated. We discovered some corpses 500 meters away in a river bed, ”he told the AFP news agency.
The expedition team waited at the foot of the 7193 meter high Mount Gurja for good conditions to conquer the mountain on a new route. Mount Gurja was first climbed in 1969 by a Japanese team.