KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A 76-year-old Nepali man has become the oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest, a government official said on Sunday, beating a record set last year by a Japanese man.

Min Bahadur Sherchan reached the summit on Sunday along with four other Nepali climbers, said Ramesh Khatri Chhetri, a tourism ministry official.

"He is in good health and coming down the slopes of the mountain," Chhetri said.

Sherchan breaks the record set last year by Katsusuke Yanagisawa, who was 71 at the time of his ascent.

More than 3,000 people have climbed to the summit since it was first scaled by New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who died in January, and Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953.