Rescuers discovered the bodies of two men and two women on the trails of 1,896m Mount Asahi in the Tochigi region this morning, a fire department official told AFP.

The fire department in Tochigi’s Nasu district received a report Friday afternoon that a male hiker was “unable to walk”.

In another call to firefighters, a climber said “several” more hikers were stranded “due to bad weather”, the official said.

A search for the four was mobilised yesterday, but suspended overnight because of strong winds and resumed this morning.

In a separate call to police, the injured man was described as suffering from hypothermia, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The four were all in their 60s and 70s, NHK said, adding one of the women is believed to have “slipped”.