Three Japanese climbers have been killed in an avalanche while scaling a mountain in Tibet, The Associated Press quoted a mountaineering official as saying today. The men were trying on Wednesday to climb Mount Kulagangri, one of the peaks greatly revered in Tibet, when the avalanche hit at 6:50 p.m. (1050 GMT), said Dou Changshen, an official of the Tibet Mountaineering Association. Other team members waiting at a camp 19,300 feet (5,900 meters) above sea level heard the avalanche and went to investigate, he said. They found the bodies 980 feet (300 meters) away from the camp. Dou said his group received a report at 7:57 p.m. (1157 GMT) and organized a search and rescue team, which brought the bodies to base camp. The weather at the start of the ascent had not been good and the climbers advanced slowly because there had been a lot of snow, Dou said. They were among a team of seven Japanese who had left the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Sept. 20.
