Four persons were killed while scores of others were rescued when avalanches struck the Kashmir Valley after unprecedented snowfall.

The police said three persons, including a woman, were buried alive under an avalanche in the Gurez border town of north Kashmir Bandipore district on Friday morning.

"The body of Sitara Begum has already been recovered from the avalanche debris while searches for the bodies are still on," said a police spokesman.

He said a house had been swept away by an avalanche that struck Nayal village near Tanchi Gurez on Friday morning.

The authorities have rescued 32 other persons from the same village who have been taken to the nearby Qazigund town and lodged in a government building temporarily.

Search teams of the army and police managed to reach the village on Friday afternoon despite heavy snowfall and poor visibility in the area.

The rescue operation was launched after the villagers sent distress messages to the local police station about their plight.

It has been snowing heavily in the Valley for the last five days even though the weather showed signs of improvement Friday afternoon, as snowfall stopped all across the Valley.

For the first time, all the flights landed at the Srinagar [Images] airport, after a suspension of four days. However, the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway continues to remain blocked for the fifth day running.