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ANKARA - Rescue workers on Friday found the body of a second Italian mountainer at the summit of Mount Ararat, eastern Turkey, his travel agent said.
The second climber to die was named as Franco Pacifico, 65, a member of an 11-member Italian team that reached the 5,136-metre (16,850-foot) summit on Tuesday but got caught in a heavy blizzard, Mustafa Kaya told AFP.
Officials said on Thursday that another member of the group, Caterina Fruttero, had also lost her life.
Both are believed to have died of hypothermia.
Kaya said the remaining nine mountaineers had descended safely.
Mount Ararat (Agri in Turkish) is located in easternmost Turkey, where the borders of Iran, Armenia and the Azeri enclave of Nakhchivan meet.
Most of it is a closed military zone and mountaineers need special permission from the Turkish authorities for expeditions on the mountain.
09/08/2006 15:46 GMT
