Choppers Rescue Mount Everest Avalanche Victims

MOUNT EVEREST, NEPAL: Helicopters airlifted injured climbers off Mount Everest today after an avalanche killed at least 17 people, an AFP team at the scene reported, as images of the disaster showed a terrifying cloud of snow roaring towards base camp.Six helicopters landed at base camp in Nepal, the agency’s Kathmandu bureau chief Ammu Kannampilly reported after weather conditions improved overnight.”People being stretchered out as choppers land – half a dozen this morning,” Kannampilly said in a text message..”Weather clear, some snowfall.”Pictures taken by AFP’s South Asia photo chief Roberto Schmidt showed an enormous cloud of snow and debris cascading down the mountain as survivors recalled the horrifying moment that disaster struck on Saturday.”I ran and it just flattened me. I tried to get up and it flattened me again,” Singapore-based marine biologist George Foulsham told AFP at base camp.”I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was dead. When I finally stood up, I couldn’t believe it passed me over and I was almost untouched.”A spokesman for Nepal’s tourism department, which issues the permits to climb the world’s tallest mountain, said the death toll had risen to 17 and could increase further.”Seventeen have been reported dead so far and 61 are injured,” said Tulsi Gautam.”Those who are able are walking down. Others are being airlifted to Pheriche.”Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal mountaineering association, confirmed that 17 people were known to have died and more than 60 injured. “We don’t know their nationalities but most of them would be foreigners,” Sherpa told AFP.