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1 Chinese climber killed, 2 seriously injured in Mt. Qomolangma avalanche

Xinhua, April 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

One Chinese climber was killed, two seriously injured and one is still out of touch in the Mount Qomolangma avalanche triggered by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu, the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA) confirmed on Monday.

The Chinese death is among the at least 17 climbers that were killed in the avalanche, which slammed into a section of the mountaineering base camp. Other eight Chinese climbers were injured, but in stable conditions. The lost Chinese climber, a member of an international team, comes from Shanghai.

According to the CMA director Li Zhixin, there are four Chinese amateur mountaineer teams in the south slope of Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, when the avalanche occurred, altogether 38 Chinese climbers.

The Chinese victim is a man climber named Ge Zhenfang from team Mount Boiling. The two serious injuried climbers are women from team Mariam.

There were more than 400 climbers from different countries in the Tibetan side when the avalanche happened. Luckily all of them escaped the disaster and have descended to safety .

At least 17 climbers were killed, 61 injured in the avalanche, an Nepal official said Sunday.

21 of the most seriously injured were taken by helicopter to Pheriche village, the nearest medical facility on Sunday. However, bad weather and communications were hampering more helicopter sorties, leaving an unknown number of climbers and guides unaccounted for on other routes, said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

The avalanche began Saturday on Mount Kumori, a 7,000-meter-high mountain just a few miles from Mount Qomolangma gathering strength as it headed toward the base camp where climbing expeditions have been preparing to make their summit attempts in the coming weeks, he said.

Nepalese authorities said Monday at least 3,218 people across the region had been confirmed dead and 6,538 injured.

A Google executive, Dan Fredinburg, who described himself as an adventurer, was among the dead, Google confirmed. Lawrence You, the company's director of privacy, posted online that Fredinburg was with three other Google employees hiking Mount Qomolangma. Fredinburg served as product manager and the head of privacy at Google X. Endi