Five South Korean climbers and their four Nepali guides have been killed after a storm devastated their base camp in the Himalayas, local police and hiking officials have said.

The record-breaking climber Kim Chang-ho was among those killed in Nepal’s worst climbing accident for two years.

Police official Bir Bahadur Budhamagar said locals had helped rescuers retrieve the nine bodies from near their base camp on Mount Gurja, a 7,193-metre (23,600ft) peak about 135 miles (215km) north-west of Kathmandu.

“The bodies of all five Koreans and four Nepalis have been identified,” Budhamagar told Reuters from Myagdi district where the accident took place.

The South Korean expedition was being led by Kim, who set the record in 2013 for being the fastest to reach the summits of the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen.

Kim’s four-man team had been joined by a fifth South Korean trekker. They were at their base camp lat an altitude of 3,500 metres (11,482ft) when the storm struck.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, and the autumn climbing season is in full swing. Income from foreign climbers is a major source of revenue for the country.