Twelve die in Kashmir avalanche

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Twelve people have been killed and 12 more are missing after an avalanche in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The avalanche happened late on Monday night in the Gehel Ashkot area of the Neelum valley, about 60-65km (37-40 miles) north-east of Muzaffarabad.

Locals have joined police and army personnel searching for those missing.

The avalanche was at high altitude in the Bimla mountains close to the Line of Control that separates Pakistani and Indian-administered Kashmir.

Remote area

A senior police official, Javed Noor, told the BBC Urdu service all the victims were men.

The area has no road or telephone links and is far from any village.

The officials said they had no explanation for what the men were doing in such a remote area in the middle of the night

The deep gorges of the towering mountains have in the past served as routes for militants infiltrating Indian-administered Kashmir to fight Indian troops.

In 2005, an avalanche near villages in the Neelum valley killed more than 40 people, 30 of them from the same village.