Extreme cold weather kills 70 more people in Pakistan, Afghanistan

Severe winter weather has claimed more lives as avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall killed 55 people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir while 15 died in neighboring Afghanistan, officials said.

The latest deaths raise the two countries’ overall death toll from the severe weather to 126 since Sunday.

The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir was the worst-affected area, with 55 deaths in the past 24 hours, said Waseem Uddin, a spokesman for Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.

Among those fatalities, 41 died in a single avalanche in the Neelum Valley while 14 people died in elsewhere in the region, he told The Associated Press. Avalanches are common in Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety.

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