ISLAMABAD: Pakistani military helicopters took off Monday with four Spanish rescuers to search for a missing pair of European climbers on Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest mountain.
Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard, whose mother died on K2 in 1995, have been missing for a week on the summit known as “Killer Mountain.”
Bad weather had foiled search plans on Sunday but as the skies cleared on Monday, two military helicopters took off from the northern town of Skardu with four Spanish rescuers onboard.
Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said Spaniard Alex Txikon and his three colleagues, including a physician, would try and help find the missing climbers.
They will join Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara who is already at base camp waiting for the search to begin, Haidri said, adding that he hopes the improved weather would allow the team to undertake the search during the day.
Rescuers also plan to use a drone in their search efforts, Haidri said.
Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo, who has been following the search, tweeted on Monday that the army helicopters took off from Skardu to drop Txikon and the rescue team at Camp-1 on Nanga Parbat.
Despite being dubbed “Killer Mountain” because of its dangerous conditions, the summit of Nanga Parbat has long drawn thrill-seeking climbers. Located in Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan area, it is the ninth highest mountain in the world with height of 8,126 meters (26,660 feet).
Nardi and Ballard set out on the climb on Feb. 22, making it to the fourth base camp by the following day. The pair last made contact on Feb. 24 from around an elevation of some 6,300 meters (nearly 20,700 feet) on Nanga Parbat.
Pakistan dispatched search helicopters last week despite the closure of its airspace amid tensions with neighboring India over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir but didn’t manage to find the climbers.
Sadpara, who joined the search team, saw a snow-covered tent of the climbers on Thursday. Nardi’s team had said in a Facebook post that traces of an avalanche were evident in the area.
Nardi, 42, from near Rome, has attempted the Nanga Parbat summit in winter several times in the past. Ballard, 30, is the son of British climber Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. She died at age 33 while descending the summit of K2. Ballard in 2015 became the first person ever to solo climb all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter.
Pakistan says military to search for 2 missing climbers
Pakistan says military to search for 2 missing climbers
- Bad weather on Sunday foiled the rescuers’ drop off
- Italian and British climbers have been missing for a week
Pakistan expresses solidarity with Canada as school shooting claims 9 lives
- At least 9 dead, 27 wounded in shooting incident at secondary school, residence in British Columbia on Tuesday
- Officials say the shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after the incident
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed solidarity with Canada as a high school shooting incident in a British Columbia town left at least nine dead, more than 20 others injured.
Six people were found at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School while a seventh died on the way to the hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement on Tuesday. Two other people were found dead at a home that police believe is connected to the shooting at the school. A total of 27 people were wounded in the attack.
In an initial emergency alert, police described the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” with officials saying she was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Saddened by the tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X.
He conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a swift recovery to those injured in the attack.
“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and Government of Canada in this difficult time,” he added.
Canadian police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the violence, announcing he had suspended plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday.
While mass shootings are rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, described it as one of the “worst mass shootings” in Canada’s history.
