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New Delhi – Sherpas who attacked three European climbers on Everest were angry at the disrespect shown by “luxury adventurers” who demand tea in their tent on the world’s highest peak, a British member of the group has claimed.

Jonathan Griffith, a British Alpine climber and photographer based in Chamonix, France, was one of three European mountaineers attacked on Saturday by up to 100 Sherpa guides who kicked and pelted them with rocks following a fight at 24,000 feet over right of way.

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The Sherpas claimed that the three mountaineers had ignored their request not to climb over their ropes until they had finished fixing the route for guided expedition groups.

Sherpa leaders and officials later tried to persuade the climbers to resume their ascent, saying they could not remember an expedition being attacked before.

The big commercial operator out here said they [the Sherpas] hate Westerners and that’s been the problem for the last few years

But in a telephone interview with The Daily Telegraph, Griffith said he and his colleagues would leave the base camp and that their motivation had been “destroyed” by the attack and the hostility of Sherpas towards Western climbers.