One dead, two injured in avalanche

A 15-year-old student was today killed while two of his class mates were injured in an avalanche in Macchil sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district, police said.
Mehrajuddin Khan, a resident of village Katwara, died on-the-spot in an avalanche which hit near a madrasa at Chontiwari Payeen around 1230 hours, a police officer told PTI here.
He said two other boys - Javid Ahmad Khan and Javid Ahmad Mir - were rescued and shifted to a local hospital where their condition was stated to be "stable".
Macchil along with other high altitude areas of the Valley experienced heavy snowfall for the past two days, prompting authorities to issue an avalanche warning yesterday.

About two to four feet of snow was reported from the high altitude areas especially near the Line of Control (LoC) including Machil.
(Reopens NRG-23)

Giving details of the rescue operation, an army official said a detachment near the scene quickly sprung into action after observing that the boys were caught in the avalanche.
"Undeterred by the raging blizzard, 15-20 feet of standing snow and further avalanche warnings, the Army s Avalanche Rescue Team was immediately launched for the rescue equipped with rescue equipment including avalanche victim detector with the help of which contact with the boys was established quickly," he said.

He said the team found the boys, buried under 10 feet of snow, in a state of shock and physical exhaustion and administered critical first aid at the site itself.
"The rescue mission was able to successfully evacuate two boys. However, the third unfortunately succumbed to his grievous injuries," he added.