No hope of survivors in Nepal avalanche: French guides

CHAMONIX, France (AFP) - Rescuers have given up hope of finding more survivors of a Nepal avalanche which left at least nine people dead, a French mountain guide organisation which has been in close contact with them said on Monday.

"The searches have been abandoned for today and could be definitively... because it is thought there is no hope of finding any of the missing alive," said Mr Christian Trommsdorff, the vice-president of the National Union of Mount Guides (SNGM).

"The avalanche happened in an area of crevasses and it may be impossible to recover the bodies," he added.

Rescuers have been unable to find two Frenchmen and a Canadian who were part of a group hit by a wall of snow in their tents near the peak of the 8,156m Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday.