Over 200 climbers stranded after blizzard on Tibetan slopes of Mt Everest, 350 rescued

Over 200 hikers are stranded after a blizzard on the Tibetan slopes of Mt Everest, while 350 others have been led to safety by villagers and rescue teams. Conditions for the climbers stranded at the campsites worsened on Sunday. Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams rushed with essential supplies to the spot, which has been receiving snowfall since Friday. More than 200 hikers remained trapped in the blizzard, BBC reported on Monday quoting a state-run CCTV report. Rescue teams guided around 350 climbers to safety, it said.

Earlier reports said over 1,000 holiday hikers were stuck in the slopes of Mt Everest, the world's highest peak, in Karma valley on the Chinese side of the mountain. According to videos and eyewitness accounts posted on social media by the stranded climbers, thunder, strong winds hit the remote area on Sunday and incessant snow buried tracks leading to the spot. The mainstream media in China is yet to report on the blizzard and only a few details were available on it. China is currently shut down for an eight-day holiday from October 1 onwards to celebrate the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. Mt Everest is called Mt Qomolangma in China and is the world's highest peak at over 8,849 m. Meanwhile, Typhoon Matmo, the 21st named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season, made landfall along the eastern coast of Xuwen County, Zhanjiang City in south China's Guangdong Province on Sunday. The local governments evacuated about 3,47,000 people from the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan ahead of the approaching typhoon which had maximum speeds of 151 kmph.