German double Olympic biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier was caught in a rockfall in Pakistan and rescuers have not found “signs of life” at the accident site, her team said Tuesday.
The accident happened Monday while Dahlmeier was climbing with a partner on Laila Peak, a mountain of over 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) in the Karakoram range, according to a statement from her team on her official social media sites.
The 31-year-old was “hit by falling rocks,” it said, adding no one had yet been able to reach her due to the danger of further rockfalls and the site’s “remoteness”.
However, a helicopter managed to fly over the location and rescuers saw that “the experienced mountainer is at least seriously injured”, it said.
“No signs of life were detected.”
The accident happened around midday at 5,700 metres and a rescue operation was launched immediately.
The International Biathlon Union said in a statement it was “thinking of Dahlmeier and her family, hoping for good news to emerge soon”.
Dahlmeier, an experienced mountaineer, had been in the region since the end of June and had already ascended the Great Trango Tower, it said.
She has won seven world championship gold medals, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang she became the first female biathlete to win both the sprint and the pursuit at the same Games.
Dahlmeier retired from professional competition in 2019 at the age of 25.
She went on to become a commentator on biathlon events for German broadcaster ZDF, and also took up mountaineering.
She is a certified mountain and ski guide and an active member of the mountain rescue, according to her team.
sr/jsk/gj
© Agence France-Presse
