At least nine climbers have been killed in an avalanche on the world's eighth-highest mountain.

About 25 people were near the top of the 8,156-meter Mount Manaslu in Nepal when it was hit by a wall of snow early Sunday, in one of the worst tragedies in Himalayan mountaineering in recent years.

Local officials said most of those killed were French and that other climbers were from Italy, Germany and Spain.

The identities of the victims were not released.