Italian climber dies in Himalayas

ROME, July 16 (UPI) -- Star Italian mountain climber Karl Unterkircher has fallen to his death, say fellow climbers of the Himalayan mountain Nanga Parbat.

Unterkircher's body could be seen at the bottom of a crevice covered in snow they told his manager Herbert Mussner in a Wednesday telephone call, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

''There's no hope left,'' Mussner said, referring to the impossibility of a rescue operation at approximately 7,000 meters up the 8,125-meter mountain.

Nanga Parbat, in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, is the world's ninth-highest mountain. It has been nicknamed the Killer Mountain because of the difficulties it poses and losses of life among climbers.