A search team has found the bodies of three French climbers who had been missing near Mount Everest, police said on Monday.
The bodies were found midday on Sunday by a team of the Nepal National Mountain Guides Association on Mingbo Eiger, a peak where the French climbers went missing before they were hit by an avalanche, according to Nepal police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar.
"The bodies will be brought to Kathmandu today after completion of paperwork in Lukla," Kunwar told dpa on Monday. The bodies will be sent for autopsies once they are brought to Kathmandu.
The climbers were part of a eight member French expedition which had acquired permission to climb two mountains — the 6,783-metre Mt Khangtega and the 6,423-metre Mt Cholatse — in the Everest region, according to the Kathmandu Post.
After days of futile efforts since they went out of contact on October 26, France had also sent a team of search experts to expedite the search mission, police said.
Nepal's Himalayas have seen an increasing number of trekkers and climbers after authorities eased Covid-19 entry restrictions.
