TOKYO - RESCUE workers headed on Tuesday to a mountain in northern Japan to recover seven climbers caught in an avalanche, four of whom are reported to be unconscious, police said.

They had been reported missing after the avalanche on Mount Yarigatake, a 3,180-metre peak in the Northern Japan Alps, but were found by other climbers nearby and dug out of the snow.

'Four of them seem to be unconscious,' police said after speaking over the telephone with one of the climbers who found them.