SRINAGAR: Seventeen soldiers were killed on Monday in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp in Kashmir, the army said on Monday.

Army spokesman Colonel Vineet Sood said the avalanche struck in the Khelenmarg mountains, close to the Kashmiri ski resort of Gulmarg, which has become a major draw for foreign, off-piste adventure skiers.

"We have 17 dead and 17 injured. No one is missing and rescue teams have returned to their bases," Sood said.

The soldiers were from the Army's High Altitude Warfare School, which houses around 450 troops.

The main facility was not struck by the avalanche which swept away one of four sub-camps used for training operations.

Heavy snowfall and high winds had hampered rescue operations and made communications difficult.

Gulmarg lies 50 kilometres west of Srinagar, the Kashmiri summer capital.

First set up as a skiing school for a frontline infantry division in 1948, a year after India's independence from Britain, the high altitude school is the army's main mountain warfare training institute.

Kashmir tourism official Ghulam Mohammed Dar, who participated in the rescue operation, said there were no local or foreign skiers in the avalanche area which was high above the popular slopes.

The site, at an altitude of 2,730 metres, lies close to the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

It had been snowing heavily in and around Gulmarg since Friday and Kashmir's disaster management department had already issued warnings that heavy snowfall could trigger avalanches.

The Gulmarg resort boasts thousands of metres of relatively unrestricted off-piste skiing.

The number of domestic and foreign skiers has grown in recent years as militant violence in the region has eased off.

A two-decade insurgency by separatists opposed to Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir has claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to an official count.

Human rights groups say the toll is twice as high.

A UN-monitored Line of Control divides the region into Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

The South Asian rivals each claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over the region.

Agencies