Six of eight missing trekkers in Himachal Pradesh airlifted

Kullu : Six of the eight trekkers, who went missing in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, have been airlifted from Chandrakhani and have been shifted to Rumsu village.

"Six trekkers have been safely airlifted and they will be brought to Kullu. We have also located the other two, they are safe. They could not be rescued due to bad weather," Hans Raj Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner of Kullu told ANI.

The seven students -- from Punjab's Sant Longonwal Institute of Engineering and Technology -- and their trekking instructor had got lost during bad weather near the Chandrakhani pass area. No contract could be established with them for three days.

Three teams of ITBP had been pressed into rescue work after teams from a local mountaineering institute and the police failed due to the weather. A helicopter was pressed into service on Saturday, but failed to make much headway due to the weather.

All the students are final year classmates from the Sangrur-based institute. Two of them are from Himachal Pradesh, two from Uttar Pradesh, and three from Punjab.

Dozens of trekkers have gone missing or have died in the valley in last two decades. In August last year, Polish national Bruno Muschalik had lost his way and there was no trace of him ever since.