A rescue effort is underway after a snowstorm trapped hundreds of people on Mount Everest in Tibet.

Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams had been deployed to trekkers stranded near the eastern face of the world's highest peak, Chinese state media reported on Sunday (local time), as unusually heavy snow and rainfall pummelled the Himalayas.

As of Sunday, 350 trekkers had reached the small township of Qudang, while contact with the remaining 200-plus trekkers had been made, CCTV reported.

Visitors to the remote valley of Karma, which leads to the eastern Kangshung face of Mount Everest, were in the hundreds this week, taking advantage of an eight-day National Day holiday in China.

"It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk," said Chen Geshuang, who

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