Officials say 6 army soldiers dead, 60 others trapped as avalanche hits Indian Kashmir

6 soldiers dead, 60 trapped in Kashmir avalanche

SRINAGAR, India — A massive avalanche hit an Indian army training center at a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday, killing at least six soldiers and trapping nearly 60 others.

Rescue operations were under way at Gulmarg, a ski resort about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, said Col. Vineet Sood, an Indian army spokesman in Srinagar.

Sood said the avalanche hit a training center at the army’s High Altitude Warfare School at about 11 a.m. and swept away soldiers during a training session. He said it was the worst to hit an army camp in the area in many years.

“We have activated all resources to rescue the buried soldiers,” he said.

Farooq Ahmed, a top police officer in Kashmir, said casualties could rise and joint rescue teams of police, army and tourism officials had reached the spot where the avalanche struck.

G.M. Dar, a local tourist official in the area, told The Associated Press that nearly 200 foreign tourists and an equal number of local tourists skiing in Gulmarg were safe. He said the avalanche hit the army center, located on a high slope, about two miles (three kilometers) from the main town.

Frequent rain and heavy snowfall often trigger avalanches and landslides in Kashmir, blocking roads and cutting off tourist resorts like Gulmarg. Gulmarg is also close to the Line of Control, a highly militarized cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The claim over Kashmir has caused two wars between the archrivals since they became independent from Britain in 1947. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are posted along either side of the Line of Control.

Incessant snowfall and rain were hampering the rescue operations, Sood said.

Last year in April, an avalanche hit an Indian army post in a separate region close to the de-facto border with Pakistan, killing seven soldiers and wounding at least eight others.