J&K: Death toll mounts to 8 in avalanche in Kupwara

SRINAGAR: The death toll of the avalanche that hit Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara on Friday mounted to eight on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, five bodies were recovered from a spot in Kupwara where a car carrying six people swept away by a huge avalanche of snow. The incident also left three others missing.

"Five bodies were recovered from the avalanche site," deputy commissioner Kupwara Khalid Jehangir told PTI.

The body of a Beacon officer was recovered on Friday night after the rescue operations were launched, Jehangir said.

Three people were pulled out alive from the avalanche site, he added.

A search and rescue operation was launched by teams of police, Army, SDRF and Mountain Rescue. Heavy and continuous snowfall in the area though had made it difficult for local teams to locate the vehicle and its passengers.

Avalanches are becoming frequent in upper reaches of the state with several army outposts too being struck in the past. Last month, three soldiers went missing when an avalanche hit their outpost Gurez - their bodies recovered days later. In a separate incident, two soldiers went down a deep gorge in the Nowgam sector along the LoC.

The MeT department has predicted that the cold wave in the state and across most parts of northern India is likely to continue till the end of the week.