NEW DELHI, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Fifty-five people died Sunday across the Indian-administered Kashmir in avalanches triggered by the heaviest snowfall in 15 years, an Indian army spokesman said.

    The Indo-Asian News Service quoted the spokesman as saying in the summer capital of Srinagar that 15 people died and at least 35 others are missing when avalanches buried their houses in two villages on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Anantnag district of south Kashmir.

    Reports from Kashmir's winter capital Jammu said avalanches claimed 18 lives in Alingam village and 22 others perished in Dunno village of Poonch district. Four people were still missing from Navapachi village in Doda district, where the army had rescued 40 people buried under the avalanche.

    Meanwhile, an official spokesman claimed that sufficient food stocks were available in spite of supplies of essential commodities being hit as the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only road link to the Valley, has been blocked by landslides and avalanches.

    Due to the heavy snow, the highway will stay closed till Monday. An official spokesman said that the road clearance work would be carried out and no traffic will be allowed from either Jammu or Srinagar, which are connected by the 294-km-long highway.

    Local authorities described the snowfall as the heaviest in 15 years, with 70 cm of snow being recorded in Srinagar between morning and noon on Sunday.

    Srinagar and other towns in the Kashmir Valley have been without power for the past five days, as snowfall and avalanches snapped the two main power-lines bringing electricity to the state from other parts of north India.

    In the past two days, hundreds of people had been stranded along the Jammu-Srinagar highway following landslides. While some of them were air lifted by helicopters of the Indian Air Force, many remain in towns and hamlets along the highway, stuck in roadside motels. Enditem