Bodies of 7 missing in snowstorms recovered

Rescuers found the bodies of seven people who had been missing in the mountainous area of Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, following continuous snowstorms during the weekend.

Nine rescuers, who were acquainted with local conditions and familiar with extreme weather, were airlifted to the location where the seven were last seen by two military helicopters at 11 am on Saturday during rescue attempts.

After 6 hours of searching, the rescuers discovered the bodies of six men and one woman. But due to bad weather conditions, the bodies could not be transferred back to Altay city, about 120 km away, so the rescuers covered the bodies with sheets and planned to return to the scene the next day to collect them, the Xinjiang regional emergency office said.