Four persons, including an elderly Australian tourist, illegally camping on Mount Everest have been killed in an avalanche, Chinese authorities said today.
A tour group organised by a Tibetan travel agency entered a restricted area on the mountain without permission and camped at the foot of it on Sunday, the authorities in Tibet said.
The group, consisting of 4 Australians and six Tibetans, was hit by an avalanche on Sunday night, state news agency Xinhua quoted officials with the government of Dingri county in southwest Tibet Autonomous Region as saying.
The victims include three Tibetans and a 60-year-old Australian man, they said.
On Monday, rescuers evacuated 86 tourists from a base camp on Mount Everest and a nearby monastery where they had been stranded by heavy snow.
