In an extremely unfortunate incident, 21 people have lost their lives including 15 soldier after two avalanches hit Gurez Sector of Bandipura district of Jammu and Kashmir, on January 26. In addition, two more jawans have also gone missing.
The police officials confirmed that several soldiers were trapped since last evening after Avalanche hit an army camp in Gurez sector along the Lone of Control. The security officials have launched a massive rescue operation and are making efforts to find the missing soldiers.
“Rescue teams were able to retrieve three bodies from the spot of the incident while some soldiers are still missing,” the official said adding that more soldiers could be trapped.
Yesterday, a body of an army major was recovered as avalanche hit army camp in Sonamarg district of Jammu and Kashmir. Army sources said that death toll could rise. Eight army men were successfully rescued in the rescue operations. Operations at the Srinagar airport were also suspended following a heavy snowfall.
A Chandigarh-based Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment on January 18 issued a “medium danger” avalanche warning for some districts of Jammu and Kashmir and people were advised not to venture into vulnerable areas.
As per SASE, Bahihal Top gauged 42 cm, Gulmarg 7 cm and Drass 3 cm of snow in Jammu and Kashmir, while Dhundi and Pastio in Himachal Pradesh got 10 cm and 6 cm of precipitation respectively.
Warning has also been issued for people to not visit these areas for some time.
Every year thousands of people die in avalanche related incidents. Last year about 1,000 people died due to extreme fall in the weather conditions in the northern part of the country.
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