Chile rescuers search for tourists lost in Patagonian snowstorm, five dead

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SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Rescue workers on Tuesday searched for a group of tourists lost in a powerful snowstorm in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, in the southern Patagonia region, which killed at at least five people, authorities said.

Torres del Paine Mayor Anahi Cardenas said five people had died, including two Mexicans, two Germans and one British national. Cardenas said the difficult weather was complicating efforts to locate those still missing.

Guillermo Ruiz, the presidential delegate for Chile’s southern province of Ultima Esperanza, said the tourists became lost near the national park’s Los Perros camp, an area reachable only by a four- to five-hour trek from the closest accessible point by vehicle. 

Ruiz said the government was coordinating with military institutions who were sending brigades to the region to help with the search. Authorities also closed off the zone.

The area was struck by a snowstorm causing whiteout conditions with fierce wind speeds surpassing 193 kmh (120 mph), equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.

It was unclear where the missing tourists came from.

The Torres del Paine National Park, with its jutting mountaintops and subpolar forests, spans about 1,810 square kilometers (700 square miles) and hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

(Reporting by Sarah MorlandEditing by Rod Nickel)