International rescue teams Friday launched an operation to rescue an injured Spanish climber stranded for a week at more than 6,000 meters on a mountain in northern Pakistan. Oscar Perez has been stuck on the 7,145-metre Latok-I peak in the Karakoram range since he fell and broke his arm and leg last week while scaling the difficult north face of the mountain, said Laura Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Spanish embassy in Islamabad.
Lopez said more than two dozen climbers and porters from Spain, the United States, Canada and Pakistan had started climbing the mountain to reach Perez. "Sixteen of them were flown by army helicopters yesterday to the base camp and 10 more were transported this morning," she said.
"I don't know in which stage they are right now in their climbing, but it will take them two to two-and-a-half days to reach Perez," she added. "It's a difficult mission." However, it was not clear whether Perez was still alive since he had not been in contact with the rescuers and the army refused to drop food for him, saying its helicopters cannot fly at an altitude of over 6,000 meters, said tour operator Naiknam Kareem.
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