GILGIT, July 24: Two Italian mountaineers stranded for 10 days on one of the world’s deadliest peaks in northern Pakistan were rescued on Thursday, army rescuers said.

The climbers — Simon Kehrer and Walter Nones — had been stranded on Nanga Parbat, also known as the Killer Mountain, since July 15 when their colleague, Karl Unterkircher, fell into a crevasse and died.

“The weather had been bad but we have successfully rescued them after they descended to about 19,000 feet today,” army pilot Lt-Col Moinuddin told Reuters shortly after he airlifted the pair in his helicopter to the northern town of Gilgit.

“They are safe and physically fine,” he said.

Rashid Ahmad, a representative of the tour company that supported the Italians’ expedition, confirmed that the two were fine. “As far as my information is concerned, they are in a good condition and they don’t need any immediate medical care,” Ahmad said.

Everest-K2-CNR, the group in Italy that organised the Himalayan climb, said the two helicopters reached the climbers at 18,700 feet. Thin air makes it risky for helicopters to fly above 19,685 feet.

One of the choppers ferried Kehrer to a base camp at 14,435 feet before returning for Nones, who reached safety 20 minutes later, said Francesca Steffanoni of the Everest-K2-CNR.

Organisers monitoring progress from offices in the northern city of Bergamo waited for confirmation that the rescue had succeeded. “We exploded in shouts of joy,” said Sara Sottocornola, one of the organisers with the group.

Ahmad said the mountaineers might stay for a day or two in Gilgit before leaving for Islamabad.—Agencies