Avalanche kills 17 army trainees

AN AVALANCHE ploughed into an Indian army training centre at a ski resort town in Kashmir yesterday, killing 17 soldiers and seriously injuring 17 others.

The avalanche hit the army's High Altitude Warfare School at about 11am and swept away the soldiers during a training session, spokesman Colonel Vineet Sood said.

It was the worst avalanche in Indian-controlled Kashmir in many years, he said.

The bodies were found and 53 troops were rescued six hours after the speeding mass of snow and ice struck the centre, high on a Himalayan slope, according to Qayoom Manhas, a senior police officer.

Seventeen needed emergency medical care, he said.

About 70 troops were taking a skiing test when the avalanche struck. Rescue efforts involving army, police and civilian officials were "very timely, swift and co-ordinated", he said.

The incident happened near Gulmarg, a ski resort about 30 miles north-west of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, said Col Sood.

About 400 people, including 30 civilian workers, were at the training centre, but the avalanche hit only one portion of the facility. Incessant snow and rain complicated rescue operations.

GM Dar, a tourist official in the area, said about 400 tourists skiing in Gulmarg were safe.

Frequent rain and heavy snowfalls often trigger avalanches and landslides in Kashmir, blocking roads and cutting off resorts such as Gulmarg.

Gulmarg is near the Line of Control, a highly militarised ceasefire line dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

In April last year, an avalanche hit an Indian army post in a separate region close to the de-facto border with Pakistan, killing seven soldiers and injuring at least eight others.