By NNN-PTI
Jammu/Srinagar : Sixteen persons were buried in avalanches Friday that hit villages along the national highway in Jammu and Kashmir while security forces rescued 46 people, including a small girl, amid blizzards and heavy snow.
Six persons, including three woman and a girl, were killed when an avalanche struck three houses in Baskanmasta village of Banihal block in Ramban district, Doda range Deputy Inspector-General of Police Farooq Khan said.
He said a police team found six bodies while a three-and- a-half-year-old girl of the family, Babli, was rescued alive after digging through the snow.
The second major incident took place in Kapran area of Anantnag district where six members of a family were feared dead as their house collapsed under an avalanche, police said.
They said an army team rushed there but was unable to retrieve the bodies as 8-10 feet of snow had piled up in the area.
Three people, including a woman identified as Sitara Begum, were buried under another avalanche in Tanchi village of Gurez sector in Bandipora district, they said.
One person was killed and two injured in Gulab Bagh village in lower Munda area of Anantnag district, they said adding six ‘kothars’ (mud houses) were buried under the avalanche following heavy snowfall over the past few days.
45 people were rescued from the ‘kothars’ by police and a team of 49 Rashtriya Rifles, a defence statement said.
The body of Mohammad Shafi was recovered from one of the houses while three of those rescued were in a critical state.