24 September 2012 Last updated at 03:16 ET
Injured climbers were flown to safety by helicopter
A search operation has resumed in Nepal for at least seven climbers missing on Mount Manaslu, where an avalanche killed at least nine others on Sunday.
Poor weather had forced the suspension of earlier rescue efforts on the Himalayan peak.
Police said the group was camped near the summit when it was hit by a wall of snow in the early hours of Sunday.
Four of those who died were French. The bodies of a Nepalese guide and a German mountaineer have been recovered.
A further seven bodies have reportedly been sighted by rescue pilots. Spanish foreign ministry officials say one of the dead is a Spanish national.
At least 13 climbers are reported to have been evacuated by air to hospital in the capital, Kathmandu.
Officials are trying to determine exactly how many people were in the climbing party.
Four of the dead and three of the missing were French, the vice-president of the French mountain guides' union Christian Trommsdorff told the AFP news agency.
They were three mountain guides from the Chamonix area in the Alps and four of their clients, who were part of two expeditions, he said.
Two of those rescued were also French nationals, according to Mr Trommsdorff.
'Flood of snow'One survivor, Glen Plake, is quoted as saying that "there were 25 tents at Camp 3 and all of them were destroyed; 12 tents at Camp 2 were banged up and moved around".
Mr Plake said he had lost a few front teeth and had an eye injury after being swept 300 metres down the mountain, according to Trey Cook, the editor-in-chief of EpicTV.com, which makes films on skiing, climbing and other adventure sports.
Deteriorating weather conditions meant it was impossible to continue air searches of the mountain on Sunday.
The climbers were caught at around 7,000 metres (22,960ft) as they were preparing to head toward the summit, which is 8,156m high.
"The avalanche hit camp three of the Manaslu peak... resulting in a flood of snow," said Laxmi Dhakal, head of the Nepalese home ministry's disaster response division.
Hundreds of foreign climbers head every year for the Himalayas in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.
Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, is considered one of the most dangerous, with dozens of deaths in recent years.
The autumn climbing season began this month.
A search operation has resumed in Nepal for at least seven climbers missing on Mount Manaslu, where an avalanche killed at least nine others on Sunday.
Poor weather had forced the suspension of earlier rescue efforts on the Himalayan peak.
Police said the group was camped near the summit when it was hit by a wall of snow in the early hours of Sunday.
Four of those who died were French. The bodies of a Nepalese guide and a German mountaineer have been recovered.
A further seven bodies have reportedly been sighted by rescue pilots. Spanish foreign ministry officials say one of the dead is a Spanish national.
At least 13 climbers are reported to have been evacuated by air to hospital in the capital, Kathmandu.
Officials are trying to determine exactly how many people were in the climbing party.
Four of the dead and three of the missing were French, the vice-president of the French mountain guides' union Christian Trommsdorff told the AFP news agency.
They were three mountain guides from the Chamonix area in the Alps and four of their clients, who were part of two expeditions, he said.
Two of those rescued were also French nationals, according to Mr Trommsdorff.
'Flood of snow'One survivor, Glen Plake, is quoted as saying that "there were 25 tents at Camp 3 and all of them were destroyed; 12 tents at Camp 2 were banged up and moved around".
Mr Plake said he had lost a few front teeth and had an eye injury after being swept 300 metres down the mountain, according to Trey Cook, the editor-in-chief of EpicTV.com, which makes films on skiing, climbing and other adventure sports.
Deteriorating weather conditions meant it was impossible to continue air searches of the mountain on Sunday.
The climbers were caught at around 7,000 metres (22,960ft) as they were preparing to head toward the summit, which is 8,156m high.
"The avalanche hit camp three of the Manaslu peak... resulting in a flood of snow," said Laxmi Dhakal, head of the Nepalese home ministry's disaster response division.
Hundreds of foreign climbers head every year for the Himalayas in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.
Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, is considered one of the most dangerous, with dozens of deaths in recent years.
The autumn climbing season began this month.