FILE 2005: Mount Everest from an aerial view taken over Nepal. Senior mountaineering guide, Ang Tshering, said an avalanche swept the face of Mt. Everest after the massive earthquake, Saturday April 25, 2015 while government officials say at least 30 people have been injured on the mountain. (AP)
The powerful Nepal earthquake Saturday triggered an avalanche that killed at least 10 people on Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain.
An official with Nepal's mountaineering department says the bodies of ten climbers have been recovered on Everest. There are additional climbers unaccounted for.
Sky News reported the “huge avalanche” partially buried the Everest Base Camp.
“The toll could go up, it may include foreigners as well as sherpas,” Shretha said.
Panicked climbers sent tweets after the avalanche struck the camp.
"Everest base camp huge earthquake then huge avalanche from pumori. Running for life from my tent. Unhurt. Many many people up the mountain," Romanian mountaineer Alex Gavan tweeted.
Later, Gavan pleaded for helicopters to rescue the injured.
"Huge disaster," he tweeted. "Helped searched and rescued victims through huge debris area. Many dead. Much more badly injured.More to die if not heli asap."
Another climber Daniel Mazur of Great Britain, said the base camp had been “severely damaged.”
“Our team is caught in camp 1," he tweeted. “Please pray for us.”
Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said the avalanche occurred between the Khumbu Icefall, a rugged area of collapsed ice and snow, and the base camp where most climbing expeditions have their main camps.
The avalanche plowed into a part of base camp, a sprawling village of climbers, guides and porters, flattening at least 30 tents, Tshering said. With communication very limited at Everest, it was not immediately clear how many of those injured and killed were at base camp, and how many were elsewhere on the mountain.
Their nationalities were unclear as climbers described chaotic attempts to treat the injured amid fears of more landslides and aftershocks that continue to rattle the region. Chinese media reported a Chinese climber and two Sherpa guides were among the dead.
Hundreds of climbers -- ranging from some of the world's most experienced mountaineers to relative novices on high-priced, well-guided trips -- make summit attempts on Everest every year. At times, when the weather is agreeable, dozens of people can reach the summit in a single day. But high winds, brutal cold, difficult terrain and massive avalanches can hit the mountain with no notice. Hundreds of people have died on the mountain over the years.
"Right now, it is pretty chaotic and we try to help those injured," Danish climber Carsten Lillelund Pedersen wrote in an email to Danish news agency Ritzau.
Norwegian climber Teodor Glomnes Johansen told a newspaper in Norway that people at base camp were working on saving lives.
"All those who are unharmed organize help with the rescue efforts. Men, women and Sherpas are working side by side. The job right now is to assist the doctors in the camp here," Glomnes Johansen told Norway's VG newspaper.
Carsten Lillelund Pedersen said that he and a Belgian companion were at the Khumbu Icefall, at an altitude of 16,500 feet, when the earthquake hit.
He said a steady flow of people were fleeing the base camp for more secure areas down the mountain.
"He was blown away by the avalanche and broke both legs. For the camps closer to where the avalanche hit, our Sherpas believe that a lot of people may have been buried in their tents," he wrote in English. "There is now a steady flow of people fleeing basecamp in hope of more security further down the mountain."
Local reports in China said an amateur team encountered an avalanche on the north slope of the mountains at an elevation of more than 22,965 feet and safely retreated to a lower camp.
The magnitude-7.8 quake struck around noon Saturday about 80 50 miles northwest of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, almost one year after the deadliest avalanche on record hit Everest, killing 16 Sherpa guides on April 18, 2014.
The 2014 deaths occurred at the Icefall, where the edge of the slow-moving glacier is known to crack, cave and send huge chunks of ice tumbling without warning.
More than 4,000 climbers have scaled the 29,035-foot summit since 1953, when it was first conquered by New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. The numbers have skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 800 climbers during the 2013 spring season.
Following the 2014 disaster, guides accused Nepal's government of not doing enough for them despite making millions in permit fees from Western mountaineers who attempt to scale the Himalayan peaks. The guides protested by refusing to work on the mountain, leading to the cancellation of last year's climbing season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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