GILGIT, Aug 4: Pakistani army helicopters airlifted two frostbitten Dutch climbers from K2 on Monday after a catastrophic avalanche on the world’s second highest peak killed 11 mountaineers, officials said. An attempt to evacuate an Italian climber stranded on the 8,611-metre Himalayan summit, regarded as far more dangerous to scale than Mount Everest, was postponed after a storm grounded the helicopters.

The accident is believed to be the deadliest single incident on K2.

“Two Dutch climbers were brought by our people and their colleagues down to a base camp from an altitude of 7,300 metres overnight,” Captain Azimullah Beg told AFP by satellite telephone from the K2 base camp.—AFP