Rescuers this evening dug out dozens of bodies buried by avalanches in Indian Kashmir, taking the death toll to 110 after the worst snows in two decades swept the Himalayan region.
Most of the dead were villagers from southern Anantnag district, whose homes were hit by walls of snow yesterday, police said.
The bodies of four road workers killed by a separate avalanche on the main highway linking Kashmir with the outside world were found and two more workers are missing. "At least 200 people are missing in the avalanche-hit villages," Inspector General Javid Makhdomi told state-run Doordarshan TV.
The state was snowed under for the fourth day, largely cut off from the rest of India with flights cancelled, roads blocked and power and phones disrupted.
"The army has started moving into the village and will soon start rescue operations," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel V.K. Batra said of Sidhnag, in south Kashmir, where 10 people are dead and four missing.
The army, which has a large presence in the heavily militarised state, said about 15 feet (4.5 metres) of snow had fallen on parts of the highway linking the Kashmir Valley with the winter capital, Jammu, in the south and troops were providing food and shelter to about 2,000 stranded travellers.
Air force helicopters dropped food to stranded people.