SRINAGAR, India, Jan  26, (APP/AFP) – Avalanches killed 10 Indian soldiers in occupied Kashmir after cascading onto an army post and a patrol along the de facto border that divides the disputed territory with Pakistan, the military said Thursday.

The separate avalanches buried the soldiers under tonnes of snow on

the Line of Control (LoC) in the remote Gurez area on Wednesday, an army spokesman  told AFP.

A total of seven soldiers in the patrol, that was approaching a

border post when it was hit, were killed. The avalanche that slammed into the army post left three soldiers dead, but seven have been rescued.

A search for the other missing soldiers was continuing, Colonel

Rajesh Kalia said.

“With the recovery of bodies of four more soldiers from the patrol

the toll  in the avalanches is now 10,” he said after three bodies were recovered on Wednesday.

Dozens of Indian and Pakistani soldiers are killed by avalanches

almost every winter along the LoC.