Saturday, February 12 2005 20:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muzaffarabad: Forty-six people were killed in a series of avalanches in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), police said today (Feb 12, 2005).

Thirty-three people were killed when an avalanche buried several houses in the region's remote northeastern Mayyatan Wali Seri village early today, senior police officer Tahir Mahmood Qureshi told agencies in Muzaffarabad.

"Nine houses were completely destroyed, burying 20 females and 13 males alive," Qureshi said.

He said authorities had recovered the bodies of two women and 10 children and were trying to find the others.

The bodies of two women and four children had also been retrieved from Khawaja Seri village in Neelam Valley, hit by an avalanche on Wednesday (Feb 9, 2005).

A man and a woman died and another man was seriously injured in the remote village of Janawai in Neelam valley when their house caved in after it was hit by an avalanche overnight yesterday, Qureshi said.

And five members of a family died when their house was struck by an avalanche in southeastern Leepa valley, he said.

"The dead included a couple and their two daughters," he said, adding that another son of the couple was recovered from the snow alive.

Nearly six feet of snow has fallen in Leepa valley, which was inaccessible by road.

Two Pakistani Army soldiers were killed in an avalanche in Neelam Valley on Thursday (Feb 10, 2005), they said.

Eight other people were killed yesterday in northern Astore valley, outside Kashmir, when their village was hit by a mass of snow and falling rocks, police said.