Nusrat Sidiq
01 February 2023•Update: 01 February 2023
SRINAGAR, Jammu & Kashmir
Two Polish skiers were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday after a massive avalanche hit Gulmarg ski resort in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, local police said.
The police identified the deceased as Krzysltof, 43, and Adam Grzech, 45, both from Poland.
The Baramulla police on their official Twitter handle said: “Today morning three teams comprising 21 foreign nationals and two local guides went to Affarwat Gulmarg for skiing. At about 12.30 p.m. a massive avalanche hit Hapatkhud Kangdori where these skiing teams got trapped.”
The police along with other rescue teams of the region launched a joint operation and rescued 19 foreign nationals from Russia and Poland and two local guides, the police said.
Kashmir region is prone to massive avalanches during the peak winter period and in the last few weeks authorities in the region had been issuing warnings for the avalanches in and around 12 districts of the region.
Since Monday morning, Kashmir received a heavy snowfall curtailing air and road traffic, hitting businesses, electricity, and deferring examinations in universities.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed for traffic for the third consecutive day today following fresh landslides in the Ramban district, leaving more than 800 vehicles stranded on the road.
The 270-kilometer-long highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the other parts, was closed after a major landslide.
“There was a major landslide on the highway at Rampari area in Banihal tehsil Wednesday morning. Besides, another landslide took place in Wagon,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted an official as saying.
