China is accused of secretly removing the body of a British mountaineer, who is believed to have climbed the world's highest peak in 1924. A newly launched book claimed that China removed Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine's body from the summit of Mount Everest.
The book suggested that Beijing hid Irvine's camera, which could prove that he climbed Everest first with George Mallory in 1924.
Mallory's Body Was Found in 1999
Author Mark Synnott claimed in his new book that Beijing officials could have found Irvine's body. Synnott's book The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest suggests that Irvine and Mallory went missing when both were climbing Mount Everest in 1924.
Officially, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first persons to reach the summit in 1953. The body of Mallory was found 2000 feet from the peak in 1999.
Soon after Mallory's body was recovered, historians had raised the possibility that he could have been the person to reach the summit years before Hillary and Norgay.
British Mountaineers Kodak Camera Was Not Found
But the mystery remains unsolved about the whereabouts of Irvine's body and a camera. The two mountaineers carried a Vest Pocket Kodak (VPK) camera, which remained missing.
However, author Mark Synnott, who was part of a 2019 expedition led by New Zealander Jamie McGuinness to try to solve the mystery reveals in a new book that the Chinese may have found Irvine's body and the camera, before burying the evidence, according to Daily Mail.
Chinese Expedition Found Irvine's Body
Previously, Synnott in an article had revealed that a Chinese climber had claimed that they found Irvine's body and the camera in 1975 during the Chinese expedition.
In 1984, Synnott interviewed an unnamed British diplomat who revealed that female Chinese climber Pan Duo had seen Irvine's body during the 1975 expedition.
The Chinese climbers had also found Irvine's camera and brought that back to Beijing but they ruined the development of the film and never admitted that they found Irvine's body and his camera.
