Nepal avalanche hit climbers as they slept

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Mountaineers who survived a predawn avalanche high on the world's eighth-tallest peak say they waited an hour for the sun to come up and then saw pieces of tents and bodies of victims strewn around them on the snow.

Italian climber Silvio Mondinelli said he and a fellow climber were asleep when they heard a violent sound and felt their tent start to slide.

"It was only a few seconds and we did not know what happened, but we had slid more than 200 meters [650 feet]," Mondinelli told The Associated Press yesterday. "All we wanted was for it to stop." The avalanche hit about 4 a.m. Sunday while more than two dozen climbers were sleeping in tents at Camp 3 on Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal.

At least nine people were killed and six are believed still missing. Ten survived, but many of them were injured and were flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters.

Helicopters flew over the slopes yesterday to search for the missing as climbers and guides did so on foot.

Rescuers brought down eight bodies -- four French, one each from Germany, Italy and Spain and a Nepali guide -- and were trying to retrieve the ninth from the 22,960-foot area where the avalanche struck, police Chief Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said.

Three French climbers and two Germans were taken to hospitals in Katmandu on Sunday. Two Italians were flown there yesterday -- Mondinelli, who has climbed the world's 14 highest peaks, and fellow mountaineer Christian Gobbi.

Mondinelli said a third Italian climber and their Sherpa guide, both sleeping in another tent, were buried and died.

At least three of the victims were from the French Alps town of Chamonix, a hub for climbers on Mont Blanc and nearby peaks.