ISLAMABAD: Rescuers searching for 135 people buried under a huge avalanche at a Pakistani army camp are concentrating the efforts on five points at the site, the military said on Tuesday.
A huge wall of snow crashed into the remote Siachen Glacier base high in the mountains in Kashmir early Saturday morning, smothering an area of one square kilometre (a third of a square mile).
Experts say there is little chance of finding any survivors.
The military said more than 450 people are taking part in relief efforts —up from 286 late on Monday —aided by mechanical earth movers, bulldozers and excavators, and work is focusing on certain key areas.
“Five points have been identified on the site where rescue work is in progress,” the military said in a statement.
“Two points are being dug with equipment while three points are being dug manually.”
Photographs released by the military, on Tuesday, showed diggers and rescuers at work on an almost featureless expanse of dirty grey snow and ice, with no trace visible of the camp that had been the 6th Northern Light Infantry headquarters.
Retired Pakistani Colonel Sher Khan, a mountaineering expert, suggested the devastation may have been caused by a landslide rather than an avalanche.
“For me it was a huge landslide provoked by a cloud burst, not an avalanche,” he told AFP.
“In this case a huge flood of water is coming down from the sky and creates a lot of mud and loose earth on the mountain. Mostly boulders, mud and water ran down the mountain.”
Specialist teams from the United States, Switzerland and Germany have arrived in Pakistan to help with the search.
