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One of the mountaineering world’s most celebrated figures has been claimed by the very peak he loved, after rescuers recovered the body of British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja following a catastrophic avalanche that killed his entire 10-person international expedition on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. The Alpine Club of Pakistan officially confirmed Sunday that search teams reached Purja’s remains at an elevation of roughly 5,700 meters on the 12th highest mountain in the world.

The disaster unfolded on Thursday, when a sudden avalanche hit the expedition led by the 43-year-old climber, cutting off all communications with the team immediately. In the days that followed, rescue operations launched by air and ground teams navigated treacherous high-altitude terrain to locate the missing group. As recovery efforts continued, the Alpine Club’s general secretary Ayaz Shigri confirmed that ground teams are currently transporting four recovered bodies — Purja, two additional Nepali nationals, and one Chinese citizen — down the mountain’s slopes. One more body has been located at a much higher elevation, but Shigri noted that extreme hazards and unstable conditions make any immediate recovery attempt unfeasible at this stage.

Three other remains — those of an Omani woman, a Nepali man, and an American woman — were recovered on Friday and flown by helicopter to the nearby city of Skardu, regional authorities confirmed. Purja’s own expedition company made a devastating announcement Saturday: no members of the 10-person team had survived the avalanche.

Before turning to full-time mountaineering, 43-year-old Purja built a distinguished career in British military service, serving first in the Brigade of Gurkhas before joining the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron. After launching his mountaineering career, he broke dozens of global climbing records, and was just days away from completing a groundbreaking achievement: becoming the first person to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter “super peaks” twice without using supplemental oxygen. Just three days before the avalanche, Purja shared a public post on social media that read, “Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down.”

News of the disaster has triggered an outpouring of shock and grief across the global mountaineering community, particularly in Nepal, where Purja worked to raise the profile of Nepali climbers and grow the country’s mountaineering sector. Britain’s Prince William was among the global leaders offering condolences, writing on X that Purja “served with distinction in the British Armed Forces before becoming one of the world’s greatest mountaineers, putting Nepalese climbers on the map,” adding that he was “truly saddened” by the loss of life.

Fur Gelje Sherpa, President of Nepal’s mountaineering association, called the tragedy “an unthinkable loss for our mountaineering community and for the nation,” noting that Purja remained committed to elevating Nepal’s global reputation and advancing the country’s mountaineering industry. Mingma G Sherpa, a mountaineer who took part in the rescue mission, shared a heartfelt message on Instagram Saturday writing, “My loving brothers… We will take you back home to see (your) families.”

Located in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range, Broad Peak stands as the 12th highest mountain on Earth, and is widely considered one of the most technically challenging of all 8,000-meter-plus peaks. The mountain was first successfully summited by an Austrian expedition team in 1957.

As rescue teams pulled the body of iconic British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja from Pakistan’s Broad Peak on Sunday, waves of sorrow washed over the Nepali boarding school where his legendary grit first took root. Hundreds of kilometers from the avalanche site, teachers, former classmates and current students gathered at Small Heaven School in Nepal’s southern Chitwan district, gathering around a flower-draped framed portrait of the 43-year-old climber who reshaped modern mountaineering.

Lighting ceremonial candles in his honor, attendees shared intimate memories of the young boy who would grow to become one of the most celebrated figures in the climbing world. Dhiraj Bahadur Panta, a childhood school friend of Purja, told AFP his voice shaking with emotion that the entire community had held out hope through the days Purja was missing. “When he was missing, we were praying for him and spent sleepless nights,” Panta said. “It was not only me and my friends. I think people all over the world who knew him… prayed for him. But it was his fate, no one could avoid it.”

Purja died alongside nine other climbers after being caught in an unexpected massive avalanche on Broad Peak last Thursday. News of his passing triggered an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from the global climbing community and public figures alike, with Britain’s Prince William among those offering formal condolences.

Purja first arrived at the Chitwan boarding school as a young boy, spending eight years building deep connections with the institution’s staff and fellow students before moving on to join the British Gurkhas. That path would lead him to elite military service, and eventually, to global mountaineering stardom that put Nepali climbing expertise on the world map.

On Sunday, current students filed one by one past Purja’s portrait, laying fresh flowers and offering quiet prayers, while former teachers recalled the young pupil who showed remarkable courage and discipline even at a young age. Shailendra Baral, who supervised Purja during his time in the school’s hostel, told AFP that his exceptional character was obvious from early childhood. “Even when he was in class three, he was fearless and committed to achieving something,” Baral said. “He was honest and an obedient student, which made us happy. We found courage in him even when he was a child.”

Purja’s climbing career was defined by record-breaking feats that stunned the global climbing community. In 2019, he completed the ascent of all 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over six months, smashing the previous record of seven years. The extraordinary achievement was later documented in a popular Netflix documentary, which inspired a new generation of young climbers and elevated Nepal’s profile in a sport that had long been dominated by Western adventurers.

In 2021, Purja joined the historic all-Nepali team that pulled off the first winter ascent of K2, the world’s second-highest peak and one of the most dangerous and coveted challenges in professional mountaineering. When he returned to Chitwan in 2022 for a screening of his documentary, he received a hero’s welcome from the local community. In a social media post marking the occasion, Purja reflected on his roots at the school, writing: “I grew up here, running around with no shoes on. This is my hometown and so I wanted everyone here to see the film and inspire the younger generation.”

For current students gathered to mourn him on Sunday, Purja’s trailblazing achievements have long been woven into the school’s collective identity. “It really feels bad to hear this news because we had always heard good things about him,” said student Sarbagya Paudel. “His bravery has set a great example for our school. Not only has he made our school proud, but he has also brought pride to Nepal. It is heartbreaking to know that he is no longer with us.”

As Victoria prepares for its fiercely contested November state election, a new ground-breaking report has laid bare the catastrophic human cost of failing to address youth homelessness, laying the responsibility squarely at the feet of the next incoming government regardless of which party claims power.

Released earlier this week by Melbourne City Mission (MCM), the survey of 209 young people aged 15 to 24 exposes a systemic breakdown that pushes already vulnerable homeless youth into repeated emergency department (ED) visits for life-threatening mental health emergencies. The data paints an alarming picture: more than 50% of young people accessing homelessness services in Melbourne have visited a hospital ED for urgent mental health concerns. Of these cases, nearly 60% involve self-harm, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempts, and 17% of young people have been admitted to the ED four or more times for the same issues.

The report also uncovers deep-rooted trauma that precedes homelessness for most young people in the system. Five out of six respondents who accessed support services had grown up in households plagued by family violence, and roughly two-thirds had prior interaction with Victoria’s child protective services. Geographic data adds another layer to the crisis: in the Latrobe/Gippsland region, more than half of homeless young people have been without stable housing for two years or longer, while in Greater Melbourne, more than 25% have been unhoused for four years or more.

In response to the findings, MCM and leading youth mental health service Orygen are calling on all political parties contesting the election to commit to building a fully funded, dedicated supported housing model specifically for vulnerable young people. The proposed model would mirror a partially implemented housing program already promised and rolled out for adults, adapted to meet the unique needs of homeless youth.

Orygen executive director Professor Pat McGorry emphasized that stable, supported housing is not a secondary add-on to mental health care—it is a core intervention. “You cannot recover from a mental health crisis while you are sleeping rough or moving between temporary crisis beds,” McGorry explained. “Housing has to be part of youth mental health care, not an afterthought for when a young person has recovered. The Royal Commission made a promise to address this and so far the Victorian government has failed to deliver.”

MCM chief executive Paul Wappett added that the current system traps young people in a devastating cycle: young people are treated for mental health crises in hospital, only to be discharged back into homelessness with no safe alternative. “Every young person in this snapshot has a story that starts with trauma and ends up in an emergency department, because there is nowhere else for them to go,” Wappett said. “Police, paramedics and hospital staff are working in a broken system and none of them can give a young person the home they need. That’s not a job any of them signed up for, and it’s not a job they should have to do.”

The human impact of this policy failure is illustrated by the experience of Clara, a young Victorian who experienced chronic homelessness after being forced to leave her home at 18 to escape ongoing family violence. After leaving home, Clara cycled between temporary youth refuges, rough sleeping, and repeated ED visits for mental health emergencies. The instability and trauma derailed her education, despite her previous academic success, and her mental health declined so severely that she attempted suicide 42 times over six months.

Clara’s trajectory shifted only after she accessed medium-term supported housing through MCM. “Having a safe place to live gave me the stability to engage in recovery, access support, and rebuild my life,” she said. Today, Clara lives in permanent stable housing with her partner, studies biomedicine, and works as an advocate in MCM’s outreach team. “My experience has shown me that safe housing is not just a roof over your head, it can be the foundation for recovery, hope, and a future,” she added.

With the election just six months away, advocates are ramping up pressure on both major parties and minor candidates to prioritize this critical reform to end the cycle of trauma and hospitalisation facing Victoria’s most vulnerable young people.

A violent early-morning incident in a small Western Australian country town has left a young man dead and sparked a full homicide investigation, with two suspects already taken into police custody. Emergency responders were dispatched to a bus stop on The Boulevard in Australind, a regional community located roughly 150 kilometers south of Perth, at approximately 1:20 a.m. on Sunday following reports of an injured person at the location.

When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the man, who was in his late 20s, unresponsive with life-threatening critical injuries. He was immediately transported by emergency ambulance to Bunbury Hospital for urgent medical intervention, but medical staff were unable to save him, and he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

In the wake of the young man’s death, Western Australia Police has deployed specialist homicide squad detectives to lead the investigation into the circumstances surrounding his injury and death. As of the latest update Sunday, two men, both aged in their 30s, have been arrested and are currently in police custody. No formal charges have been filed against either suspect at this time, as investigators continue to piece together details of the incident and collect forensic and witness evidence.

Western Australia Premier Roger Cook publicly addressed the shocking incident on Sunday, describing the event as horrific and saying he was deeply saddened by the loss of life. “We’ve received reports there has been an assault, an alleged assault, in Australind,” Cook told reporters. “It would appear to be a very violent incident, and I’m very pleased that the police were able to get on top of that situation quickly. I think everyone in Australind will be shocked by this news today, and our thoughts are with the friends of the individual.”

The crime scene remains sealed off as forensic officers continue their examination, with police expected to release further updates as the investigation progresses.