CNN-News18
First published: January 27, 2017, 12:06 PM IST | Updated: 19 mins ago
Representative image (Reuters)
New Delhi: The death toll in two avalanches that hit Gurez and Sonmarg sectors of Kashmir valley reached to 20 on Friday after four more bodies of the soldiers were recovered from Gurez site.
Out of the 20 dead, 5 were reported to be civilians.
Till Friday, bodies of 11 soldiers were recovered from Gurez.
On Wednesday, an officer was killed in an avalanche at Sonamarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district while four members of a family died in another avalanche in Gurez sector.
A police official on Thursday said the house collapsed under the debris of the avalanche resulting in death of 55-year-old Mehraj-ud-Din Lone, his wife Azizi (50), 22-year-old son Irfan and daughter Gulshan (19). Lone’s another son, Reyaz Ahmad, was rescued by the authorities and admitted to hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed grief over soldiers who were killed in avalanches and said that authorities have been directed to carry out search and rescue operations.