ROME: Italian mountaineer Karl Unterkircher died while trying to scale the Nanga Parbat in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the world''s ninth highest mountain, a foreign news agency said Wednesday.

The 38-year-old, a native of the Alto Adige region of northern Italy, fell into a crevasse, or a large deep crack on the surface of a glacier, report said.

His fellow climbers, Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer, informed Unterkircher''s family and his manager, Herbert Mussner, of the accident by satellite phone, it said.

"Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer will continue their climb to Nanga Parbat because they cannot use the same route to go down to the valley," Mussner said, adding that the accident occurred some 7,000 metres above sea level.

The 8,125-metre (26,660-foot) peak has claimed numerous victims, including Guenther Messner, the brother of famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner.

Nanga Parbat has been associated with tragedy since 1891 when the first expedition took place there. The first ascent to the peak occurred years later in 1953.