Three US citizens among dead in avalanche after Nepal quake

File photo of Dan Fredinburg, a veteran Google Inc executive. [Photo/IC]

Three Americans died in a massive avalanche triggered by the devastating Nepal earthquake, the US State Department said on Sunday, including a medic and a filmmaker who were at a base camp for Mount Qomolangma climbers.

Nearly 2,500 people were confirmed killed in the 8.1 magnitude quake, making it the worst such disaster to hit Nepal since 1934 when 8,500 died. Thousands more were injured. At least 17 died in the avalanche.

The medic, Marisa Eve Girawong, was a physician's assistant who worked for Madison Mountaineering, a Seattle-based guide service, according to Kurt Hunter, the company's co-founder and chief technology officer.

"She was quite beloved by our entire team," Hunter said in a telephone interview on Sunday. "We're deeply saddened by her loss."

Girawong, who was from Edison, New Jersey, according to media reports, was among more than a dozen people who perished in the Mount Qomolangma avalanche.

Tom Taplin, a 61-year-old filmmaker and photographer from Evergreen, Colorado, making a documentary about the Mount Qomolangma base camp when the avalanche hit also died, his wife Cory Freyer said on Sunday in a telephone interview.