Search continues for climbers swept away by avalanche in Pakistan

A search operation resumed on Saturday after at least 10 climbers were swept away by an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, according to officials.

"The search operation has started and a team will climb up the mountain," said Ayaz Shigri, spokesman for the Alpine Club Pakistan, a body that oversees mountaineering.

A team of at least 10 climbers from Pakistan and Nepal is taking part in the rescue mission, he said.

Shigri said that the missing climbers were being tracked via the GPS devices they had with them.

A 10-member expedition team comprising at least six men from Nepal, one American woman, an Omani female mountaineer, a Chinese national and a Pakistani, lost contact with the base on Thursday morning while summiting the 8,047-metre-high Broad Peak.

An avalanche hit the expedition led by renowned Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja when the climbers were above 6,000 metres.

On Friday, the bodies of three climbers from Oman, Nepal and the US were found.

Broad Peak is one of them tallest mountains in the world. Hundreds of climbers attempt to summit it every year along with K2, the world's second-highest peak in the same region.

Mountaineering accidents are common on Pakistani peaks and the frequency is increasing due to climate change, according to climbing experts.