Islamabad - Pakistani Army aviators on Wednesday airlifted an Italian climber left stranded on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, by an ice fall last week, officials said.

Suffering from frostbite, Marco Confortola took five days to descend to an advance base camp at an altitude of 5,800 metres, but efforts to rescue him on Tuesday were hampered by foggy conditions.

"Confortola has been rescued by a military helicopter in the morning (on Wednesday)," Italian embassy spokesman Sergio Oddo told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Oddo said the mountaineer was being flown to the town of Skardu where he would undergo a medical check-up and later depart for Islamabad by "first available flight."

Confortola was among the eight K2 expeditions which were hit by an avalanche on Friday.

Pakistan's government on Monday confirmed that 11 climbers - three Koreans, two Pakistani high-altitude porters, two Nepalese, a Frenchman, a Norwegian, a Serb, and an Irish national - died on K2 this weekend. (dpa)