Kupwara avalanche: 7-year-old boy rescued, death toll rises to 11

A day after a massive avalanche hit north Kashmir's Kupwara district, a seven-year-old boy was found alive under the snow on Saturday and was rescued safely.

Reportedly, three vehicles were hit by a huge avalanche of snow at Khooni Nallah near Sadhna Top on the Kupwara-Tangdhar road after which several people went missing.

While the rescue operations are underway, Baseer Ahmed Khan, Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir has told ANI that the death toll in the avalanche has reached to eleven.

"Five bodies were recovered on Saturday from the avalanche site," deputy commissioner Kupwara Khalid Jehangir told PTI. The body of a Beacon officer was recovered last night after the rescue operations were launched, Jehangir said.

Death toll in Tangdhar avalanche rises to eleven #JammuAndKashmir

— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2018

The bodies of two beacon officers were also found amongst those recovered from the snow.

Apart from the seven-year-old boy, three people have been pulled out alive from the avalanche site, he said, adding that the rescue operations are underway.

Notably, avalanches have become a frequent scenario in certain areas of Kashmir these days. Earlier, three soldiers died in an avalanche in Gurez in December, while two soldiers were also swept down to a deep gorge in the Nowgam sector along the LoC in a separate incident.