Rescuers helping hundreds of Mount Everest hikers trapped by heavy snow

Beijing – Rescuers helped hundreds of hikers trapped by heavy snow in tourist campsites on a slope of Mont Everest in Tibet, Chinese state media later said.

About 350 hikers had reached a meeting point in the country of Tingri and the rescuers were in contact with 200 others, said the CCTV state diffuser. There was no immediate update on rescue efforts on Monday.

The hikers were trapped at an altitude of more than 16,000 feet, according to a previous report by Jimu News, a Chinese online site. Mount Everest measures approximately 29,000 feet high.

A hiker who rushed to descend before the snow blocks the way to Jimu News that others on the mountain told him that the snow was 3 feet deep and had crushed tents.

Another hiker who put himself safe is cited by the reuters news agency saying: “It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk. This year’s time is not normal. The guide said that he had never met such a time in October. And it happened too suddenly.”

Hundreds of rescuers directed the mountain on Sunday to clarify the paths so that people trapped can descend, according to Jimu’s report. A video shot by a villager showed a long line of people with horses and oxen rising a winding path in the snow.

The snowstorm struck during a one -week national holiday in China when many travel to the country and abroad.

In another mountainous region of western China, a hiker died of hypothermia and altitude evil and 137 others were evacuated in the northern part of the province of Qinghai, video surveillance announced on Monday.

Research in an area in the county of Menyuan with an average altitude of more than 13,100 feet was complicated by the field, unpredictable weather conditions and continuous snowfall, according to a video surveillance ratio.

Mount Everest, known as Mont Qomolangma in Chinese, rides the border between China and Nepal, where recent heavy rains have wiped the villages and caused landslides, killing more than 40 people.

The climbers try to develop the highest peak in the world of basic camps in the two countries. The base camp for climbers is separated from the tourist camp where hikers were trapped by snowfall.

A strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in the same area in January.

The Chinese side of Everest is in Tibet, a distant western region where the government has severely repressed dissent and has flowed funds for economic development, especially roads and tourism.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled during an uprising failed in 1959 and lived in India, where some Tibetans have set up a government in exile.