Avalanche claims 2 lives in J&K as snows hit

New Delhi: Northern India was fully in the grip of cold weather conditions on Sunday with widespread snowfall in the hilly areas even as the winter claimed its first casualties in Jammu and Kashmir where two teenaged girls lost their lives after being trapped beneath an avalanche.
In J&K, two teenaged girls were killed on Sunday after being buried alive under a mound of snow when an avalanche struck in the Gurez area in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, police said.
A massive search operation was undertaken to recover the bodies of Shafeeqa Bano (18) and Dilshada Bano (16), who met with the mishap when thay had gone to fetch water from Kishenganga river.
The area was one of the several parts of Kashmir that received snowfall in the past 24 hours. Srinagar recorded 1.8cm of snowfall while the minimum in the city increased last night from -3.9 degrees Celsius to settle at a low of 0.3 degrees. Qazigund received 13cm snow while the Pahalgam hill resort received 17cm snow and recorded a low of -2.4 degrees, a rise of over two degrees from the previous night’s -5.6 degrees. The ski resort of Gulmarg received 15cm snowfall. The minimum also increased in Leh as the mercury touched -6.2 degrees, as against -12.4 degrees on Saturday. (PTI)