10 bodies retrieved, 27 mountaineers missing after avalanche in Uttarkashi

Twentyseven mountaineers remained missing on Wednesday after rescue workers brought 14 injured members of their team to safety a day after an avalanche claimed 10 lives in UttarkashiThe Uttarakhand Police said on Facebook that 10 bodies have been retrieved so far as a multiagency search and rescue operation aided by IAF helicopters continued through the day to find those missingChief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami did an aerial inspection of the area which is at a height of 17000 feet that was hit by the avalanche on Tuesday and told reporters that 27 climbers are still missingHe said he prayed for their safety even as personnel of the State Disaster Response Force SDRF National Disaster Response Force NDRF IndoTibetan Border Police ITBP and mountaineers from the Nehru Institute Of Mountaineering NIM are trying to find the missing climbersAlso read Uttarakhand Police release list of 28 trainee mountaineers missing after avalancheOut of 34 27 are still missingrdquo Dhami told reporters after the aerial survey along with Haridwar MP and former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal NishankMeanwhile 14 injured mountaineers were airlifted to the ITBP camp at Matli out of which five were admitted to district hospital Uttarkashi and nine who had sustained minor injuries were sent back to the NIM the Uttarakhand Police said on the social mediaHowever it is still not clear whether the 14 injured mountaineers rescued on Wednesday were part of the 41member team that had gone to summit the Draupadi ka DandaII peak or waiting at the NIM basecampAccording to the NIM the team which was caught in the avalanche consisted of 34 trainee mountaineers and seven instructors onlyEarlier in the day the Uttarakhand Police released a list of 28 trainee mountaineers who were missing in the avalanche at the height of 17000 feetSub Divisional Magistrate Bhatwari Chattar Singh Chauhan said 14 members of the team out of which six had sustained minor injuries in the avalanche were airlifted to Matli in two sortiesEight more rescued in another sortie are alright he said adding they are being sent back to the NIMOut of the 14 rescued so far 10 are trainees and four instructors he said adding the NDRF SDRF ITBP and NIM are jointly conducting the search and rescue operationsA search is on to find the rest of the 41member team of mountaineers who have been missing since the avalanche occurred at 845 am on TuesdayThe missing are said to be stuck in the crevasse in Dokriani Bamak glacier where the avalanche struckThe trainees hail from West Bengal Delhi Telangana Tamil Nadu Karnataka Assam Haryana Gujarat Himachal Pradesh Uttarakhand and Uttar PradeshThe bodies recovered include that of mountaineer Savita Kanswal who had climbed the Everest in May this year She was from Lonthru village in Uttarkashi districtSearch and rescue operations resumed on Wednesday morning with four ITBP jawans dispatched in Cheetah and ALH helicopters to Dokriani GlacierThe rescue operations had to be halted due to darkness and inclement weather on TuesdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever