Search teams recover famed climber Purja's body and 3 others from Pakistan peak

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Search teams backed by military helicopters recovered the bodies of renowned British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja and three other missing climbers on Wednesday, bringing the number of bodies recovered from Broad Peak to seven nearly a week after an avalanche swept away a 10-member international expedition, officials said Wednesday.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the operation was one of the most technically demanding recovery missions ever carried out on the mountain. It said the bodies of Purja, Chinese climber Zhong Wang and Nepali climbers Nima Sherpa and Kilu Sherpa were brought to Broad Peak base Camp.

Search teams brought down three other bodies on Aug. 1.

The bodies will be transported to a military hospital in Skardu when weather conditions permit, local officials said.

In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, family members, friends and supporters of the climbers gathered Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil. Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners observed a moment of silence before lighting candles in memory of those killed in the avalanche.

The climbers, who came from Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, China, Britain and the United States, were swept away by an avalanche last Thursday in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, in what the Alpine Club has described as one of the country’s deadliest mountaineering disasters.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed condolences to the families of those killed, saying he was deeply saddened by the tragedy and Pakistan remained committed to the ongoing operation in coordination with the embassies of Nepal, Oman, Britain and the United States.

Mountaineering accidents are common in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, extreme altitude and rapidly changing weather. A Chinese climber died last year after being struck by falling rocks while descending K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

Bodies of foreign climbers who die attempting to summit mountains in Pakistan are typically recovered only at the request of their families and governments. If families decline recovery efforts, the remains are usually left where the climbers died.

In a statement, the Alpine Club thanked the Pakistani and Nepali recovery teams, including Pakistani mountaineers Sirbaz Khan, Abid Beg and Sherzad, and Nepali climbers Dipen Gurung and Pemba Chhewang Sherpa.

Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. AP writer Niranjan Shrestha in Kathmandu contributed to this report.

Monks chant religious mantras before lighting candles in memory of the climbers who died Thursday in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A woman lights candle in memory of the climbers who died Thursday in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Family members, friends and supporters light candles in memory of the climbers who died Thursday in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this photo released by the Alpine Club of Pakistan on Friday, July 31, 2026, members of a mountaineers rescue team prepare to depart from an airbase on a search operation for climbers missing after an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, in Skardu, in Gilgit-Baltistan's region, in northern Pakistan. (Alpine Club of Pakistan via AP)

FILE - Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja, who became the fastest climber of the world's 14 highest peaks, arrives at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Oct. 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)

LONDON (AP) — British children’s author and comedian David Walliams used his fame to groom girls and young women for sex, two British news outlets reported on Tuesday.

ITV News and the Guardian newspaper said their joint investigation featured interviews with multiple women who gave first-hand accounts of Walliams' conduct. One woman alleged he sexually assaulted her at his house when she was 15, while others accused him of grooming them when they were teens.

Walliams, 55, denied the allegations. He had sought a court injunction to bar ITV News and the Guardian from identifying him in their reporting. His lawyers claimed that publication of sexual misconduct allegations would lead him to take his own life.

A judge rejected his injunction request last week, but protected his identity until late Monday.

“I am not a sexual predator,” Walliams said, according to ITV. “I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”

“Whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did,” he added.

Walliams’ lawyer, Sara Mansoori, earlier told the High Court that he had made a suicide attempt when he received letters from ITN and Guardian News and Media seeking his response to the allegations. He later made another attempt, she said, and he was recently admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care.

The case has drawn widespread attention in Britain because it highlighted questions over public figures’ right to privacy and what media can report on the basis of public interest.

Gavin Millar, representing the media companies, has said that the allegations were gathered after “a wide-ranging and rigorous investigation” and that there was a strong public interest in publishing them.

He told the court that the investigation involved speaking to more than 100 people, including 30 sources with first-hand accounts of his conduct.

“The defendants allege that, over a period of years, the claimant used his status and influence as a well-known public figure to establish contact with young women, some considerably younger than him, and that he engaged or sought to engage in seriously inappropriate conduct,” according to a summary of the court judgment.

Some of the alleged conduct could amount to criminal offenses if proven, it said.

Walliams was dropped last year by publisher HarperCollins after allegations were made of inappropriate behavior. Few details were published at the time, but the Guardian reported Tuesday that there were concerns about his behavior for years, including an allegation that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior female employee.

Walliams is best known for comedy sketches on “Little Britain," a hugely popular British TV show in the 2000s, but he's also a celebrated children's book author with some 40 published titles that sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website. Several of them, including “Gangsta Granny,” have been adapted into BBC comedy dramas and stage productions.

Walliams left his role as a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2022 after apologizing for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants.

In dismissing the injunction bid, Justice Matthew Nicklin said such a legal measure would mean “an exceptionally serious interference” with the rights of the media companies.

He noted that Walliams had a “serious and longstanding psychiatric vulnerability” which must be taken seriously, and said a decision allowing the allegations to be published will substantially increase his risk of suicide. However, he added that the evidence did not “establish that suicide is inevitable.”

FILE - The Royal Courts of Justice are seen in London, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

FILE - David Walliams poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Choral " during the London film festival in London, on Oct. 12, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)