Pak avalanche: Search hampered by blizzard, poor weather

A week after a massive avalanche slammed into a Pakistani army camp in Siachen sector near the Indian border, several foreign teams have joined search for 138 people, mostly soldiers, still buried under snow but the operation was hampered by a blizzard and severe weather conditions.

The search operation at Gyari was continuing at "full pace despite severe weather conditions, blizzard and low temperatures," the military said in a statement today.

Troops engaged in the operation were determined to dig out the people buried under tonnes of snow, it said.

Specialist high altitude teams from the US, Germany and Switzerland were being sent by road and air to the site.

Teams from China and Norway too were due to arrive in Islamabad to join the operation, the military said.

Rescue teams have focussed on six "priority points" and excavated over 100 feet at two points in their search for 127 soldiers of the Northern Light Infantry and 11 civilians who were buried when the avalanche hit a battalion headquarters on April 7.

The low temperatures were posing a serious challenge to the effectiveness of heavy equipment being used to dig through the snow, the military statement said.

"Disregarding the difficulties posed by a 145-feet high pile of snow" and extreme cold at the bottom of the excavation, troops are digging a horizontal tunnel at the base of the main excavation site to access a building, it said.

The access tracks to the site of the avalanche have been improved and small teams of infantry troops have fanned out in the area, the statement said.

A week after the avalanche, rescuers have found no trace of the buried men despite a frantic search operation.

Photos released by the military today showed troops using bulldozers and heavy machinery to remove mounds of snow even at night.

Several photos showed the rescuers working amidst snowfall.

The avalanche covered an area of one square kilometre and buried the men under about 80 feet of snow.

More than 450 rescuers have been working in sub-zero temperatures at the site though experts say there is virtually no chance of finding survivors.

Indian and Pakistani troops have been engaged in standoff on the Siachen glacier since 1984.

The guns have largely been silent since late 2003, when the two countries put in place a ceasefire along the frontiers in Jammu and Kashmir, and more troops have died due to the adverse weather than combat.