Mountaineers retrieve another body in Himalayas

Indian mountaineers have retrieved the body of a trekker from a Himalayan glacier in northern India which is believed to be that of a Swedish woman who disappeared during a trek 23 years ago, police said yesterday.

A group of trekkers spotted three bodies on the Kangla glacier last month and informed police in India's Himachal Pradesh state.

A search party which reached the 5,486-metre glacier earlier this week, was able to retrieve the body of a female trekker and were on their way back to the nearest town, Bhag Mal, a senior police officersaid yesterday.

"The team members said they have seen some more bodies nearly 500 metres further away on the glacier but they could not reach the bodies due to bad weather," Mal said.

He said the team had found near the body the passport of Margot Lydia Aulikki Ryynanen, a Swedish national who was reported missing in 1981 while on a trek to the Kangla glacier.

The Swedish Embassy in New Delhi said they would determine whether the body is that of Ryynanen after a forensic examination.

Mal said the government would send another expedition to retrieve the other bodies after the weather cleared, which was most likely to be next summer.

On Tuesday, mountaineers retrieved the bodies of three climbers believed to be Swedes which have been lying for 23 years in the Himalayan glacier, an official said.

The mountaineers recovered the bodies from a height of about 5,791 metres in Himachal Pradesh, said B.R Varma, deputy commissioner of Lahaul and Spiti district.

He said the three bodies had been brought to a base camp and the search for a fourth body called off due to bad weather Monday would resume soon. The bodies were spotted on the Kangla Jot glacier, about 500 kilometres north of the state capital Shimla, by trekkers about four weeks ago.

The trekkers informed the police here only two weeks later, once they had returned from their hike.

Documents and letters retrieved by one of the trekkers suggested the bodies were those of four Swedes, including a woman, missing since 1981.

Efforts were still under way to establish their identities, Varma said.