The overall death toll in the Uttarkashi avalanche has increased to nine after five more bodies were recovered on Thursday. This comes two days after a team of climbers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were trapped by an avalanche in Uttarkashi.

According to the reports, 22 mountaineers are still believed to be missing. The avalanche hit Draupadi Ka Danda II peak at a height of 17,000 feet on Tuesday when the team was returning after summiting.

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According to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), the recovery of five more bodies takes the number of bodies retrieved so far to nine after four were recovered on the day of the avalanche. Of the nine bodies, seven are of trainees and two of instructors. The Uttarakhand government has announced ex-gratia to all the affected families: Rs 2 lakh each for the families of those killed, Rs 1 lakh each for those with serious injuries, and Rs 50,000 for the others injured.

Earlier in the day, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said, without accounting for the five bodies recovered, that of NIM’s 61-member advance training course team, including trainees and instructors, four bodies had been recovered, 30 were safe and 27 still missing.

Earlier in the day, a 14-member team from High Altitude Warfare School based in Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir joined the rescue operation for the missing mountaineers.

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The team, which specialises in high-altitude rescue operations, will help in the joint efforts by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and mountaineers from NIM in their efforts to find the missing climbers, the SEOC said.

Among the deceased was 26-year-old Savita Kanswal, who became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest and Mount Makalu in just 16 days and set a national record this year. Kanswal, who was an instructor at the institute, climbed Mount Everest (8,848 m) on May 12 and Mount Makalu (8,485 m), the world’s fifth highest peak, on May 28.