MOSCOW, October 19 (RIA Novosti) – Nepal has closed down a section of one of its popular trekking routes on Sunday after a major snowstorm killed 38 hikers in the Himalayas last week, AP reported.
Despite the obvious danger, new climbers were starting to make their way up the same route that was hit by the blizzard last week, causing the Nepalese officials to close down the route, AP said.
“Our rescuers and helicopters ended up having to bring down these new people while we were still trying to reach the ones who were stranded by the blizzard”, said a government official, Yama Bahadur Chokhyal, as quoted by AP.
“It was burdening and confusing the rescuers, so they had to be stopped”.
Last week’s disaster has killed at least 38 people; 25 have already been identified – eight of the dead were the Nepalese, while others included hikers from Canada, India, Israel, Slovakia, Poland and Japan, reports the Independent.
The snowstorm was the result of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast several days earlier. The Annapurna trekking route was hit by the blizzard, catching the hikers off-guard.
