Four soldiers were killed and four injured when an avalanche and a blizzard struck an army post and an army patrol, respectively, in north Kashmir on Wednesday.

Three soldiers were killed in the Tangdhar sector of Kupwara and one in the Gurez sector of Bandipora, the army said. The four others are being treated in hospital.

Two avalanches had last month killed six jawans and two porters on the Siachen glacier in Ladakh.

“Despite the best efforts of the rescue and medical teams, three army personnel in the Tangdhar sector and one in the Gurez sector succumbed (to their injuries),” Colonel Rajesh Kalia, the Srinagar-based defence spokesperson, said.

The four dead soldiers are: Naik Akhil SS, 28, from village Veeranakavu in Kerala; Havildar Rajendra Singh, 36, from Hardiya in Rajasthan; Sepoy Amit, 28, from village Mundsa Jhaggar in Haryana; and Sepoy Kamal Kumar, 21, from village Sahawa in Rajasthan. Akhil was killed in Gurez and the three others in Tangdhar.

Defence sources said the blizzard had trapped a patrol of four at an altitude of around 12,000 feet in Gurez.

“Naik Akhil developed a severe medical condition and after immediate first aid, he was evacuated to 92 Base Hospital at Badami Bagh Cantonment, Srinagar, where he unfortunately succumbed,” an officer said.

Four jawans of the 2 Jat Regiment were hit by an avalanche around the same time in Tangdhar.

On November 30, two soldiers were killed in an avalanche on the southern Siachen glacier in Leh. Four soldiers and two civilian porters had earlier died in an avalanche in northern Siachen on November 18.