Nepal Earthquake Leads to Deadly Everest Avalanche

UPDATE: According to reports, the death toll on Mount Everest following the Nepal earthquake has rose to at least 18. Search efforts continue, though aftershocks have slowed rescue.

EARLIER: Even more tragedy hits Nepal. After a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit near Kathmandu Saturday, at least eight people have died on Mount Everest following an avalanche. As of right now, officials say many more are missing, but the exact number is not yet know.

According to reports, and the Nepal Mountaineering Association's Ash Tshering, the avalanche struck not only climbers ascending near the Khumbu Icefall, but also those who were resting at base camp.

Following the disaster, climbers in the area took to social media to share what they witnessed while attempting to climb the world's largest mountain, which suffered another deadly avalanche just last year. According to Mashable, Carsten Lillelund Pedersen, a Danish climber, took to Facebook to describe the scene as those who were injured began to receive treatment:

We are starting to receive the injured, the most severe of them with many fractures, he was blown away by the avalanche and broke both legs. For the camps closer to where the avalanche hit, our Sherpas believe that a lot of people may have been buried in their tents.

Pedersen wasn't the only climber on Everest during the avalanche. Climber Daniel Mazur tweeted he had even experienced aftershocks while on the mountain:

And CNN featured video from another climber who had witnessed the avalanche following the earthquake.

As for the identity of those killed, not much is known yet. A Nepal mountaineering official, Gyanendra Shretha, told reporters "foreigners as well as sherpas" could be among the dead or missing.

The death toll in Nepal sat at over 800 just hours after the earthquake, and is only likely to rise as search efforts continue. (Update: The death toll has now risen to over 3,800, and more than 6,000 people are thought to be injured.)