Search teams aided by Pakistani troops have pulled out 21 more bodies from homes destroyed by this week’s avalanches in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The fatalities raise the overall death toll due to severe winter weather to 160 for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Rescuers were racing against time to reach scores of people believed still to be trapped inside their homes, buried under avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The severe snowfalls and landslides in AJK have caused misery & deaths. I have asked the NDMA, the military & all our federal ministers to immediately provide all humanitarian assistance on an emergency footing to the affected people in AJK.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 14, 2020
With many roads still blocked by snow, authorities were using helicopters to evacuate those injured.
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan flew to Kashmir on Wednesday to visit the avalanche-hit areas.
