Nepal to deploy security on Mount Everest

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Nepal has decided to deploy a team of security officials at Everest base camp, in a bid to avert brawls between climbers, officials say.

Last April a fight erupted between European mountaineers and a group of Sherpas at 7,470m (24,508ft).

Although that dispute was eventually resolved, officials say Everest’s slopes are becoming more crowded.

An office staffed by army and police will open in April at Everest base camp as the climbing season gets under way.

:ast year’s brawl between a group of European climbers and Sherpas raised concerns about the safety and security of climbers.

The conflict – which made headlines around the world – was allegedly over the fixing of ropes on the slope.

Officials say the new office will also be able to help climbers in distress, clean the mountain and enforce climbing rules, the a foreign news agency reports.

More than 3,000 people have scaled Mount Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Straddling Nepal and China, the world’s highest mountain has an altitude of 8,848m (29,029ft).