First Pakistan team of climbers scale K2 summit

Expedition organisers at base camp spoke to the team at the summit, as Shahzeb Jillani reports

K2 lies in Pakistan, near the northern border with China. The climbers made it to the summit at 02:30 (22:30 GMT on Friday).

Mountaineers regard K2 as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.

Correspondents, however, say descending from the top is more dangerous.

The Pakistani climbers were undertaking their expedition on the 60th anniversary of the first successful ascent of K2.

Two Italians - Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli - reached the top of K2 on 31 July 1954.

The current expedition - called K2 60 Years Later - includes six Pakistanis: Hassan Jan,

Ali Durani, Rahmat Ullah Baig, Ghulam Mehdi, Ali and Muhammad Sadiq. Three Italians are also part of the group.

Individual Pakistan climbers have reached the top before - but this is Pakistan's first successful team attempt.

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad says many have died returning to the base camp in the past as the descent is trickier.In June, the Italian organisation supporting the Pakistani effort announced it had installed a weather station feeding data to the climbers and researchers monitoring activity in high mountain regions.