Five Koreans among nine killed in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Five South Korean climbers and their four Nepali guides have been killed after their basecamp in the Himalayas was ravaged by a storm, local police and hiking officials said on Sunday.

The disaster, which claimed the life of record-breaking Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, is the worst climbing accident to hit the Himalayan nation in two years.

Police official Bir Bahadur Budhamagar said rescuers helped by locals retrieved the bodies of the nine climbers on Sunday from near their basecamp at Mount Gurja, a 7,193 metre-high peak (23,600 feet), located roughly 216 km northwest of Nepal´s capital, Kathmandu. "The bodies of all five Koreans and four Nepalis have been identified," Budhamagar told Reuters. The Korean expedition was being led by Chang-ho, who set the record in 2013 for being the fastest to reach the summits of the world´s 14 highest mountains.