Pakistani officials announced on Wednesday that rescue teams had recovered 21 more bodies from houses destroyed by avalanches this week in the Himalayas, bringing the total death toll from the severe winter weather to 160 people.
Pakistani Minister for Disaster Management Ahmed Raza Qadri said that the most affected areas was the Neelum Valley in the Kashmir region, where 21 bodies had been recovered.
He added that since Sunday, 76 people have been killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in weather-related incidents, while 45 have died in Balochistan (southwest) and Punjab provinces in the east of the country.
And Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan headed to Kashmir today, Wednesday, to inspect the areas hit by the collapse, where he visited a military hospital in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani-administered Kashmir region.
Rescuers are racing against time to reach the dozens of people still trapped inside their homes, which were buried under heavy avalanches due to heavy snowfall in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir.
With snow still falling on many roads, the authorities were using helicopters to evacuate the injured, and snowfall was renewing in the affected areas, which hampered relief operations.