10 mountaineering students killed in avalanche in Uttarkashi, search on for missing 11

8 from the group have been rescued; the budding mountaineers were on their way to scale Draupadi’s Danda 2 peak at 18,000 feet.

SDRF teams leave from Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun to rescue the trainees trapped in an avalanche in Draupadi's Danda-2 mountain peak | Twitter/@ANINewsUP

Ten trainee mountaineers were killed Tuesday morning when an avalanche hit them on a mountain in Uttarakhand.

Out of a group of 29 that were trying to scale Draupadi’s Danda 2 peak in Uttarkashi, eight were immediately saved while rescue teams were looking for another 11.

On the way up to the peak at 18,000 feet, the group from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering fell in the path of an avalanche around 8 am.

Personnel from the national and state disaster response forces joined the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in search operations, while the Indian Air Force loaned two Cheetah helicopters to aid the rescue and relief.

IAF officials also said other fleets of choppers were on standby if needed.