Search under way for 9 missing climbers

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TOKYO, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Police and rescue crews were searching Saturday for nine mountain climbers missing in four central prefectures, officials said.

In Toyama prefecture, police were working to locate four climbers who went missing as their group, based in Tokyo, headed for Mount Tsurugi in the Northern Alps, Kyodo News reported.

Two men from Aichi prefecture were lost in the Northern Alps, but on Mount Myojin, police said.

An Osaka man became lost in the Southern Alps in Nagano prefecture, police said. An aerial search for that man was under way.

On Mount Fuji, police were looking for two men, one from Fukushima prefecture and the other from Tokyo, police said.

Rescue crews successfully located climber Yutaka Nakanishi, 50, Thursday on Mount Nishihotaka. He was airlifted to a hospital but he died from exposure.

Police said they have been busy since the first of year working to locate climbers who have gone missing due to blizzards and cold temperatures that have hit a wide area of Japan.