INDIAN air force pilots have spotted five bodies in the search for a group of eight climbers missing in the Himalayas.
Martin Moran – whose company Moran Mountain is based at Strathcarron in the Highlands – was leading the party in a bid to reach the summit of an unclimbed peak near India’s second highest mountain Nanda Devi before the alarm was raised on Friday.
District magistrate Dr Vijay Kumar Jogdande said the bodies were found before the rescue operation in the northern state of Uttarakhand had to be suspended because of heavy snowfall and high winds.
He said officials were consulting the Indian army on how to retrieve the bodies before the search for the three others resumes tomorrow.
Moran's family have said it was “not entirely clear” what had happened to the group – which included another three British climbers – but said there was “clear evidence that a sizeable avalanche had occurred on the mountain”.
He has been a mountain guide since 1985 and set up his Moran Mountain, together with his wife Joy – with the couple's grown-up children Hazel and Alex also working for the family business.
Academic Richard Payne, from the University of York, is also thought to be among the group of missing climbers.
As well as four Britons, the group includes two American climbers, one Australian and one person from India.
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