Pak troops save 2 Italian climbers

Sergio said the climbers were being brought to the northern city of Gilgit and that they would hopefully come to Islamabad on Friday.

A military-linked helicopter firm, Askari Aviation, said in a statement on its website that the pair had arrived in Gilgit later on Thursday.

Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest peak, is nicknamed “killer mountain” because it has claimed numerous victims, including Guenther Messner, the brother of famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner.

Unterkircher, 38, from northern Italy, died when he fell into a deep crack on the surface of a glacier.

In August 2005 Pakistani army helicopter pilots rescued Slovenian climber Tomaz Humar from a narrow, snow-covered ledge 6,310 metres up Nanga Parbat.