NAGANO (Kyodo) A three-member mountaineering party from Kyoto missing since the weekend was found dead Tuesday near the top of 2,641-meter Mount Narusawa on the border of Toyama and Nagano prefectures, rescue workers said.

At around 6:40 a.m., the body of Shogo Sakurai, 25, a graduate student at Kyoto Prefectural University, was found by a rescue chopper near the peak. Then at 11 a.m., the body of 51-year-old Tatsuo Ito, an assistant professor at the school, was found, rescue workers said.

The remaining climber, female undergraduate Mana Yasunishi, 20, was found dead nearby at 2 p.m., they said.

The area where the three were found was covered with fresh snow, so the climbers may have lost their way or suffered an accident, they said.

The three assaulted the mountain from the Nagano side Saturday and planned to return Sunday.