Kathmandu , Nepal ( CNN ) -- Searchers on Monday suspended efforts to find three mountaineers still missing in Nepal after an avalanche swept down Manaslu mountain , sending climbers -- some still in their tents -- tumbling hundreds of feet down the world 's eighth-highest peak . `` The mission is over for now , '' rescue coordinator Mingma Sherpa said Monday . Rescuers think the climbers might be dead . If true , the death toll from the Sunday incident would be 11 . For now , officials have confirmed eight deaths : four French citizens , one German , one Italian , one Nepali and one Spanish . Twelve climbers were injured , said Binod Singh , a Nepali police spokesman . The avalanche , which struck around 5 a.m. Sunday , was most likely caused by a piece of ice the size of six or seven football fields that fell from a glacier above the camp , said Christian Trommsdorff , vice president of the National Syndicate of High Mountain Guides in Chamonix , France . One of the survivors , Frenchman Arnaud Manel , said Monday that he was in a tent with two other people when large amounts of snow began to fall on it . He said he managed to break the icy tent open and get out , and then rolled for what he thought was about 200 meters ( 655 feet ) in the snow . `` When I stopped rolling , I was neck deep in snow , '' said Manel , a 42-year-old surgeon . `` I was only wearing a T-shirt . I could n't breathe . '' He said enough of the snow around him melted to allow him to clamber out . He said that he managed to save one friend , but that another , buried deeper in the snow , died . Another survivor , American Glen Plake , was inside his tent reading Bible verses when the avalanche swept 300 meters ( 985 feet ) down the mountain , according to Trey Cook , the editor in chief of EpicTV.com . He spoke with Cook by satellite phone . EpicTV.com makes films about skiing , climbing and other adventure sports . Plake said that when he stopped moving , he was still in his sleeping bag , in his tent and was still wearing the headlamp he 'd been using to read . Plake lost a few front teeth and suffered an eye injury , Cook said . Plake had planned to descend from the summit on skis without the aid of oxygen , according to Cook . The avalanche struck two camping areas for mountaineers , one at 6,600 meters ( 21,650 feet ) , and another about 500 meters ( 1,640 feet ) below , according to Yograj Kadel of Simrik Air , which participated in the rescue efforts . The mountain is 8,163 meters ( 26,780 feet ) high . Cook said Plake told him that the avalanche destroyed all 25 tents at one of the camping zones and bashed and moved 12 tents in the other . Two French expeditions were on the mountain when the avalanche struck , a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said . Two French climbers were among the missing , she said . Among those confirmed dead was Marti Gasull of Spain , described by the nonprofit Pro-Language Platform in Barcelona as one of the leading Catalan language activists in the country . `` He had a passion for the mountains . He was committed to the Catalan culture and language and admired for his human side and his commitment to our country , '' the group said in a posting on its website . Kenton Cool , a mountain climber from England who reached the summit of Manaslu in 2010 , told CNN that the weather during the post-monsoon season can be unsettled . His friends on the mountain told him that in the past 10 days or so , there had been `` quite high levels of snow on the mountain , '' he said . Teams normally wait for new snow to settle before leaving camp . Cool , who said Manaslu had a `` fearsome reputation , '' predicted that searchers will have a hard time finding some of the people still on the mountain . The area where the avalanche happened is the site of large crevasses . `` It will be hard to know exactly where everyone was , '' he said . `` It will be hard to find the bodies , let alone retrieve them . '' According to Nepal tourism officials , 231 foreign mountaineers from 25 teams were attempting to climb the mountain in the autumn season that ends in November . Avalanche disaster revives fears about Nepal 's crowded mountains .
NEW : Rescue coordinators believe three missing climbers are dead , suspend operations . NEW : `` The mission is over for now , '' rescue coordinator says . Eight people are confirmed dead in the Sunday avalanche on Manaslu . A French survivor says he found himself `` neck deep in snow ''