Heavy snow in Kashmir kills 6

INDIA: Three Indian soldiers and three road workers were killed by two avalanches in Kashmir as heavy snow closed the Himalayan region's main highway, the army said Wednesday.

"Four soldiers were on patrol duty at one of the posts when a snowslide hit the area in (northern) Baramulla district," army spokesman Colonel Hemant Joneja told AFP.

"By the time help reached there, three of our men had died. A fourth was removed to a hospital," he said.

Three labourers working with the Indian Army's border roads organisation to clear snow were killed in another avalanche at Sadna Pass in northern Kupwara district, a police spokesman said.

"The labourers were working to reopen a road cut off by heavy snow," he said.

NEW DELHI, Thursday, AFP