Nine Nepali climbing guides were confirmed dead in an avalanche that hit Mount Everest on Friday, officials said. "Three have been rescued and they are seriously injured," said Dipendra Poudel, the secretary of the Tourism Ministry's Mountain Section. "There are a couple of others who are still missing but we are unsure about the exact number." "An avalanche hit the climbers when they were ascending from the base camp to camp one. The army, police and doctors were helping in the rescue," dpa quoted Poudel as saying. Most of those killed were locals from the Everest region. Concerns have been high in the last few years over the number of climbers going up the mountain. In 1996, eight climbers were killed on Everest in a snowstorm. More than 4,000 people have summitted the mountain since the first ascent in 1953 and more than 400 have died trying.
