An expedition organizer says two Indian climbers on Mount Kanchenjunga (KAN'-chen-joonga) have died while attempts were being made to rescue them.

Pasang Sherpa of Peak Promotion in Kathmandu says one of them had scaled the world's third tallest peak while another was on the way up but fell sick and died.

The climbers identified as 48-year-old Biplab Baidya and 46-year-old Kuntal Karar fell ill just below the 8,586-meter (28,160-foot) summit and attempts were being made to bring them to a lower camp from where they would have been picked by a rescue helicopter.

Hundreds of foreign climbers and their guides attempt to scale high Himalayan peaks during the popular spring climbing season in Nepal that begins around March and ends this month.