Bodies of missing tourists from Belarus and Lithuania have likely been found in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan during a search operation, reports infohub.kz.
According to 24.kg, Belarusian citizens Maxim Polyansky and Nikolai Sviridov, as well as Sergei Rubtsov from Lithuania, climbed Peak Kurumdy on August 2. The descent to the base camp was planned for August 4, but the group did not make contact at the scheduled time. After that, Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers began a search operation.
The work was complicated by bad weather, heavy snow, and low visibility. However, the head of the search operation, Alexander Smirnov, stated that bodies were presumably found in the morning on drone footage in the area of a snow and rock slide. Personal belongings of the group members were found nearby earlier.
"We must be precise in our words, so we will say directly what we have. The footage does not show people: almost everything is hidden by snow and rocks. We see boots with crampons, parts of equipment and clothing, and outlines that we interpret as bodies. We can only be certain after descending, and identification will be possible then. Until that moment, we will not name names or provide any details. The families are aware of everything. One thing we can say with confidence: the findings on the slope are connected by a rope; the guys were roped together, and below on the slope we found belongings of all three over these days. The group did not split; they were together and remain together. No one was left alone on the slope," Smirnov explained.