Beijing: Rescue efforts were underway on Sunday in the remote Tibetan slopes of Mount Everest, where a blizzard had trapped nearly 1,000 people in campsites on the eastern side of the world’s tallest mountain.
Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams have been deployed to clear out snow blocking access to the area, which sits at an altitude of more than 4,900 metres.
Some tourists have already been rescued, BBC reported, quoting local media.
China Central Television (CCTV) said 350 hikers had been rescued from blizzard conditions on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest on Sunday and that contact had been established with more than 200 individuals who remained at camp and would be brought down to the small township of Qudang in groups.
Chinese state media outlet Jimu News had previously reported that roughly 1,000 mountain climbers were pinned down at sites just below base camp on the north face of Mount Everest.
Jimu said the climbers were at camps located at an altitude of roughly 4,900 meters (16,076 feet).
CCTV’s report did not say whether local guides and support staff had been accounted for.
Tents have been reported damaged and news of casualties has also been mentioned, though no fatalities have been reported thus far.
Though rescue efforts are underway, they have been hampered by persistent heavy snow and winds.
Snowfall has continued since Friday, according to local tour companies that suspended ticket sales to the area late Saturday.
Locals have been deployed to aid in clearing snow blocking access to the camp.
Neighboring Nepal has also been blasted by precipitation in the form of rain, with landslides and flash flooding killing dozens of people across the border.
Everest is the highest mountain on Earth, with its peak measring 8,848 meters above sea level.
The mountain is also deadly, having claimed the lives of hundreds of climbers since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first climbed to its summit in 1953.
