Pakistan troops rescue climbers

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Pakistan's army has rescued two Italian mountaineers stranded for 10 days on Nanga Parbat - one of the highest and deadliest Himalayan peaks.

Climbers Simon Kehrer and Walter Nones got into difficulties on 15 July when fellow climber Karl Unterkircher fell into a crevasse and died.

The two were stuck at about 6,600m (21,600 feet) above sea level.

Nanga Parbat is sometimes called the "Killer Mountain" because of the problems it poses climbers.

'Safe'

"The weather had been bad but we have successfully rescued them after they descended to about 19,000 feet today," army pilot Lt-Col Moinuddin was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying.

"They are safe and physically fine," he said.

The pair were airlifted by helicopter to the northern town of Gilgit.

The 8,125-metre-high Nanga Parbat - in the west of the Himalayas - was first scaled in 1953 but only after 31 people had died trying to reach the top.

In July 2006, the body of one of Latin America's best known climbers, Jose Antonio Delgado, was found on the mountain.

A year earlier, Pakistani troops rescued renowned Slovenian mountaineer Tomaz Humar from Nanga Parbat after he spent six days stuck under a narrow ice ledge.