Avalanches kill 6 mountaineers in W. Iran

Six mountaineers were killed and another severely injured by avalanches in Iran's western province of Kurdestan, reported Xinhua, quoting the official news agency IRNA on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday evening as the seven mountaineers were climbing the Haft Tash mountain in Baneh County, IRNA reported.

Elaborating on the incident on Saturday, Ali-Akbar Varmaqani, Kurdestan's deputy governor general for political, security and social affairs, told IRNA that the mountaineers were hit by three consecutive avalanches and buried under the snow.

He added that search and rescue operations, which started Friday evening, stopped during the night due to heavy blizzards and freezing temperature, but resumed on Saturday morning.

Two bodies were found Friday night, and four others on Saturday morning, IRNA quoted Kurdestan's Governor General Arash Zarehtan Lahoni as saying in an address to reporters, as he was announcing the end of the search and rescue operations.