Four bodies have been recovered and identified following an avalanche on Himlung Himal in Manang, while search teams continued efforts on Monday to locate 12 people still missing in the  7,126-metre peak.

The Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) said two bodies were recovered on Monday, those of Birendra Gurung and Ghanshyam Rai. The bodies of Chhebi Bhote and Pasang Bhote were recovered and identified on Sunday.

NNMGA President Tul Singh Gurung said the association’s search and rescue team continued its operation in the avalanche-hit area on Monday. The team planned to search for another three to four hours if weather and mountain conditions remained favourable. “Four bodies have been recovered and identified. Twelve people are still missing, and the search for them is continuing,” Gurung said.

The workers and guides were reported missing on Sunday morning after an avalanche struck the Himlung area. The search team, led by Mingma G Sherpa, operator of Imagine Nepal Trek and Expedition and an international mountain guide, was also mobilised to look for them. The team left Kathmandu on Sunday and stayed overnight in Chame. On Monday morning, it was flown by helicopter from Chame to the Himlung base camp, where the search operation began.

Meanwhile, the bodies recovered on Sunday were flown from Chame Hospital to Kathmandu by a Kailash Helicopter chopper and taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital by a hearse.