Four hikers die on Japan mountain

TOKYO: Four hikers were found dead Saturday after spending the night on a mountain trail in Japan, authorities said.

Rescuers discovered the bodies of two men and two women on the trails of 1,896-metre Mount Asahi in the Tochigi region Saturday morning, a fire department official told AFP. The fire department in Tochigi’s Nasu district received a report Friday afternoon that a male hiker was “unable to walk”.

In another call to firefighters, a climber said “several” more hikers were stranded “due to bad weather”, the official said. A search for the four was mobilised Friday, but suspended overnight because of strong winds and resumed Saturday morning. In a separate call to police, the injured man was described as suffering from hypothermia, public broadcaster NHK reported. The four were all in their 60s and 70s, NHK said, adding one of the women is believed to have “slipped”.