MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll in Nepal's climbing disaster has reached 43, but all surviving trekkers are now safe, The Guardian reported Saturday, citing local officials.
"All remaining trekkers in the region are [now] safe" having found shelter or moved to safer ground. . . We have not received any further calls for rescue or for information about stranded people," Binay Acharya of the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal is cited by the newspaper as saying.
Some 43 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster and the death toll is expected to rise, the newspaper wrote citing a local official. Among the victims are tourists from Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Israel and Poland.
According to The Guardian, the exact number of missing is still subject to confusion, as the army claims that some 40 people are unaccounted for, while Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that more than 35 tourists and some 30 Nepalis are missing.
Nepal's worst mountain disaster occurred in the Mustang and Manang districts on Tuesday when the region was hit by an unseasonal snowstorm. Rescuers could only begin search efforts on Wednesday after the severe weather cleared.
Trekkers from all over the world travel to the Annapurna circuit of the Himalayas in October to hike the 150-mile route around the mountain which takes some three weeks to finish.
