Avalanches, landslides kill eight, trap four people in Kashmir
srinagar — Heavy snow caused avalanches and landslides that killed eight people and trapped four others in Jammua and Kashmir, officials said on Friday.
Rescuers cut through mounds of snow to reach 10 people — six policemen, two firefighters and two prisoners — who were trapped in a fire station in the southern Banihal area overnight, said top police officer S.P. Pani.
They found the bodies of three of the policemen and the two firefighters, and two others were rescued alive, police officer Harmeet Singh said. He said the unidentified rescued men were hospitalised while efforts to find the three missing people continued.
Pani said the policemen had taken shelter in the fire station because it had not been damaged by past avalanches in the mountainous area, where landslides are common.
Elsewhere, a man died in the southern Kokernag region when an avalanche hit his home on Thursday evening, and his wife was still trapped under the snow, police said. Two other family members were rescued Thursday night. Officials said a landslide also hit a key highway connecting the Kashmir Valley and Jammu near the southern Ramban region, killing two people. Dozens were evacuated from high-risk areas following heavy snows that disrupted power and communications as well as air traffic in the state, while cutting off the Kashmir Valley from rest of the country. Authorities issued a high-danger avalanche warning in many parts of the region. —