10 Army soldiers missing in Siachen avalanche

At least 10 Army jawans are missing after an avalanche hit Siachen’s northern glacier in Jammu and Kashmir.

The soldiers were hit as they patrolled a glacier at an altitude of 5,800 metres (19,000 feet), Colonel S D Goswami said.

“In the early hours of today, 10 soldiers were hit by an avalanche at the northern Siachen Glacier while on patrol,” Goswami said.

Rescuers from the Army and Air Force have been deployed to search for them, he added.

Avalanches and landslides are common in the area during the winter and temperatures there can drop as low as minus 60 degrees celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).

In January, four soldiers were killed by an avalanche, while last year another four died when their vehicle was buried under an avalanche near Leh, the main city of the high-altitude region known as Ladakh.

An estimated 8,000 troops have died on the glacier since 1984, almost all of them from avalanches, landslides, frostbite, altitude sickness or heart failure rather than combat.