Indian Himalayas avalanche kills two, group of trainee mountaineers missing

LUCKNOW (Reuters) -Two people have died and at least 19 are still missing in the Indian Himalayas after a group of trainee mountaineers was hit by an avalanche, officials said on Tuesday, as soldiers and rescuers scoured the area in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Authorities were alerted of an avalanche near the Draupadi Danda-2 peak around 9.30 a.m. local time and first responders were deployed immediately, Uttarakhand state official Devendra Singh Patwal said, adding that eight people had been rescued.

"The Indian Air Force is doing an aerial recce of the mountain where this happened. It is not easy to reach the spot. We only know that two people have died in this avalanche," Uttarakhand police chief Ashok Kumar told Reuters by phone.

Patwal said the group mainly consisted of trainees from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, a well-known mountaineering school under the Ministry Of Defence.

(Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

By Saurabh Sharma