Avalanches kill nearly a dozen Indian troops in Kashmir

A series of avalanches have struck the Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing 11 Indian soldiers and four civilians.

The army said it recovered on Thursday the bodies of ten of soldiers who were killed in an avalanche the previous day. One body was found on Wednesday.

They were killed as the avalanches buried an army camp and a separate patrol approaching a post on the border known as the Line of Control (LoC) under tonnes of snow in the remote Gurez area.

Several army personnel were rescued after being trapped in avalanches across the heavily militarized region which is a point of dispute and often deadly skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops. 

The four civilians killed included two children of a family whose house was hit by a separate avalanche, also on Wednesday.

Dozens of Indian and Pakistani troops are killed by avalanches almost every winter along the LoC.  

Indian-administered Kashmir has been witnessing one of the most severe winters in recent decades. It has been experiencing heavy snow across the territory and temperatures dropping to minus seven degrees Celsius.

SS