Nepal searches for avalanche victims

"Mountain guides, skilled in search, have been deployed," Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told AFP. 

Crews are digging through snow, and scanning the white landscape with electronic detectors.

Sherpa said that they were searching for five bodies -- two Italians, two Nepalis and one German. The bodies of an Italian and a French citizen had already been recovered.

Survivors recounted to AFP how slabs of ice smashed into the group as they clung on the mountain, burying some under the snow.

In a separate incident last week, two Italian climbers died while attempting to scale the 6,887-metre Panbari mountain.

Italy's foreign ministry had also reported several missing citizens trekking in Nepal, but said Thursday they had "managed to communicate with the group of five hikers... with whom there had been no contact for several days".

It said the five were safe and well.

Home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal welcomes hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year.

Last month, Cyclone Montha triggered heavy rain and snowfall across Nepal, leaving trekkers and tourists stranded on popular Himalayan routes.

According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, at least 1,093 people have died on peaks since 1950, with avalanches killing almost a third of them. 

pm/pjm/rsc