Five members of naval expedition missing in Uttarakhand

New Delhi, October 1

Five members of a mountaineering expedition team of the Indian Navy went missing today following an avalanche at Mt Trishul in the western Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. The rescue operation is on.

Navy officials said a multi-agency team, including the Army, Air Force and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), had been deployed to carry out a search and rescue operation for the missing personnel.

The search was called off at night and will resume tomorrow. The location of the avalanche is just a couple of hundred metres short of the 7,120 m (23,360 ft) high summit of Mount Trishul. This makes the rescue point higher than the Siachen glacier range.

The 20-member expedition was flagged off from Mumbai on September 3. Ten of the climbers had started the final leg of their journey to the summit this morning, but were caught in the avalanche, Naval officials in Delhi said. Five of the 10 climbers are safe. — TNS