The recovered bodies of two students who had gone missing inside Langtang National Park on January 17 were sent to Kathmandu for a post-mortem on Thursday.

A six-member search and rescue team, led by mountain guide Lal Bahadur Tamang, had recovered the bodies of Japan Tamang, 19, of Gokarneshwor Municipality, Kathmandu, and Wangel Sherpa, 17, of Helambu Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchok, on Monday.

Their bodies were found buried under snow some 3km from Phedi in Dupcheshwar Rural Municipality.

Yobindra Singh Tamang, chairman of the rural municipality, said the bodies were airlifted to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu.

“The bodies will be handed over to their relatives after the post-mortem,” Tamang said.

Both Tamang and Sherpa were the students of Kumari Boarding School in Boudha, Kathmandu. 

The two friends had gone missing while they were trekking to Gosaikunda.

Search and rescue teams were deployed by Dupcheshwar and Helambu rural municipalities after the two teenagers were reported missing.
Security personnel from Nuwakot and two helicopters were also used in the search mission. 

On the day Tamang and Sherpa went missing, seven people—four foreigners and three Nepalis—had also gone out of contact in the Annapurna Base Camp area following heavy snowfall. 

While the authorities rescued around 100 people from the area on the next day, the status of four South Korean and three Nepali trekkers remain missing. 

The search operation has been suspended due to bad weather.