Paris Confirms Four French Dead in Nepal Avalanche

France's foreign ministry on Monday confirmed that four French climbers were dead and two missing after an avalanche in Nepal.

"According to a preliminary toll, four French citizens are dead at this stage," the minister in charge of French citizens abroad, Helene Conway-Mouret, said in a statement. "The search continues for two of our citizens."

The statement said three other French citizens had been taken by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu after the avalanche.

It said the French consul was on site to provide assistance and that they would be repatriated to France starting from Monday.

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

Officials in Nepal earlier identified eight of the nine people killed in the accident as four French, a Nepali mountain guide, a Spaniard, a German and an Italian.

French mountain guides in contact with the rescuers in Nepal said Monday they had given up hope of finding the missing survivors alive.