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Nepal closes trekking route and ends rescue operation after 38 die

Nepal closes trekking route and ends rescue operation after 38 die

By :  DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-10-20 04:30 GMT
Nepal was wrapping up rescue operations in its northern mountains Monday, saying all the hikers believed to be stranded on a trekking route by a series of blizzards and avalanches that left dozens of others dead have been rescued and are safe. Photo
Hikers were caught off-guard when the weather changed quickly. The cyclone arrived at the height of the annual mountaineering season in mid-October when the weather is clear and cool.
The snowstorms were whipped by the tail end of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier. Category 3 Tropical Cyclone Hudhud came ashore near the city of Visakhapatnam, India, on Oct. 12, leading to the deadly blizzards, which swept
The country of 28 million has only 2.1 physicians and 50 hospital beds for every 10,000 people. (Photo: PTI)
Most of the victims were on or near the Annapurna trekking route, a 220-kilometer (140-mile) collection of trails through the mountain range. Most of the casualties were among those caught on the Thorong La pass, one of the highest points on the
The snowstorms were whipped up by the tail end of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier. Hikers were caught off-guard when the weather changed quickly.
Also Sunday, Nepalese officials closed a section of the popular Annapurna trekking circuit because new groups of hikers had been streaming into the area where most of the victims died.
Rescuers retrieved the bodies of nine Nepalese porters Sunday from a mountain slope. The bodies were spotted a day earlier by a rescue helicopter, but it took hours for rescuers to reach them on foot.
So far, 34 bodies have been identified. Most of them have been flown to nearby towns or Katmandu for autopsies.
At least 38 people, including trekkers from Canada, India, Israel, Slovakia, Poland and Japan, died in the blizzards and avalanches that swept the Himalayas last week.
The quake also caused extensive damage to houses and infrastructure and triggered avalance in the Himalayas. (Photo: AP)
The last flights by rescue helicopters in Mustang, Manang and Dolpa districts will be Monday, said Yadav Koirala of Nepal's Disaster Management Division. All the casualties were in those three districts, located northwest of the capital, Katmandu.
Nepal closes trekking route and ends rescue operation after 38 die

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