GILGIT:The chances of the survival of two foreign mountaineers missing in Liligo Glacier near Trango Towers in Baltistan are bleak.

Li Haoxin Chen of China and Ka Kit Ng of Hong Kong had gone missing a week ago during their attempt to scale 6,400 metres high peak in Liligo Glacier.

They had last contacted the base camp on June 14.

The two Pakistan Army helicopters carried out rescue operation with the help of the third climber, a Chinese national, who was at the base camp when his colleagues lost contact with him.

Tour operator Ishaq Ali told Dawn that the helicopters carried two sorties on Wednesday and Thursday.

He said the helicopters with the Chinese climber aboard flew over the peak on Wednesday to find the missing climbers, but their whereabouts remained unknown.

The Pakistan Army carried out another search operation on Thursday for around 90 minutes, but to no avail.

It, however, spotted a sleeping bag buried in the snow at the height of around 5,200 meters.

The Chinese climber confirmed that the bag belonged to one of his missing colleagues.

Though it`s not clear if the sleeping bag was empty, it was almost confirmed that the climbers didn`t survive as their survival at that height was not possible.

The tour operator said the Chinese climber believed that his colleagues had lost life.

He said it seemed that a snow avalanche had hit climbers at the height of 5,200 meters.

The authorities haven`t decided yet about the abandoning of the rescue operation.