Indian soldiers have located the bodies of seven of the eight members of a team of international climbers, including a group of Britons, who were killed on a dangerous Himalayan mountain.
The administrator of Uttarakhand state, Vijay Jogdande, said the soldiers reached the bodies on Sunday, but they had yet to be identified.
They will now be brought down from where they were discovered at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres.
Veteran British mountaineer Martin Moran led a team of four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and an Indian on an expedition up the 25,600ft Nanda Devi East mountain, which is India’s second highest peak.
Contact with the group was initially lost on May 26, as the prelude to an air search being launched after the group failed to respond on May 31.
The experienced climber from Lochcarron in Western Ross set up his company Moran Mountain in Strathcarron alongside his wife Joy and their grown-up children, Hazel and Alex, also work for the business.
He organised regular expeditions in the region since 1992, where he worked with various local partners.
In a statement released by his company earlier this month, his family said they were “grateful” for the efforts being made by teams on the hill.
It added: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic events unfolding in the Nanda Devi region of the Indian Himalaya.
“As a family, we share the same emotions that all next of kin are experiencing in not knowing the whereabouts or wellbeing of those closest to us.
“We are grateful to the Indian Mountaineering Foundation who are coordinating search and rescue efforts on the ground and in the air under extremely difficult conditions in a very remote area of the Himalaya.”
Five bodies believed to be from the missing team were spotted by air nearly two weeks ago.
Ground expeditions by the Indian paramilitary forces and the Indian Mountaineering Foundation were launched after helicopter missions failed to reach the area.
Mr Jogdande confirmed that the search for the missing eighth mountaineer will continue in the days ahead.
HS Chauhan, president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, said authorities would decide on an air evacuation of the bodies depending on weather conditions.
Ground expeditions also are in the area for the arduous task.
