Agence France Presse — English
September 7, 2006 Thursday 6:58 PM GMT
Italian climber dies on Mount Ararat: agency
ANKARA, Sept 7 2006
An Italian woman has died on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey and a
second mountaineer is missing, the Anatolia news agency reported on
Thursday.
The Italian, whose identity was not immediately known, was part of an
11-strong team which reached the 5,136-metre (16,850 feet) summit on
Tuesday and was caught in a blizzard at a height of around 4,200
meters while descending, officials in the province of Agri told
Anatolia.
The woman died after she lost her footing and fell, while a second
member of the team, whose details were not immediately known, was
missing, the agency reported.
The mountaineers contacted the local authorities by mobile telephone
and a search-and-rescue team was dispatched to help them.
The group had not notified the authorities of their expedition,
officials told Anatolia.
Mount Ararat (Agri in Turkish) is located in Turkey’s easternmost
region, where the borders of Iran, Armenia and the Azerbaijani
exclave of Nakhchivan meet.
Most of it is a closed military zone and mountaineers need special
permission from the Turkish authorities for expeditions on the
mountain.