ISLAMABAD: A rescue and search operation has begun for three Spanish climbers who went missing in bad weather in the mountains of northern Pakistan, officials said.
Manzoor Hussain, chief of the Alpine Club of Pakistan that coordinated the expedition, said that four Spaniards went missing on Sunday after scaling the 8,068-metre (26,469-foot) Gasherbrum-I peak in the Karakoram range.
One of the climbers had managed to make it back to base camp but the other three were still missing.
Hussain said search teams and other members of the expedition were looking for them. He said they had requested a search helicopter, but due to bad weather they were having a difficulty in search operation.
Last week, three Iranian climbers went missing on another mountain and rescuers had called off the search for them, but at the insistence of the Iranian embassy another search effort was mounted on Tuesday, Hussain said, but to no avail.
Hussain said the Iranians sent a distress call just after reaching the summit of the 8,051-metre Broad Peak on July 16.
