Buried for 18 hours after avalanche, 12-year-old girl found alive in PoK

Islamabad, Jan 16: A 12-year-old girl has miraculously survived after remaining buried for 18-hours after a massive avalanche hit Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Neelum Valley that engulfed her family house.

Samina Bibi lived with her family in a three-storey house in Neelum Valley when the building was hit by an avalanche and got engulfed by snow on Tuesday.

She was found alive during the rescue operation by the disaster management authorities on Wednesday and had suffered a leg fracture, with blood oozing from her mouth, Geo News reported.

She was later shifted to a hospital in Muzaffarabad where she is undergoing treatment and is said to be out of danger.

"I thought I would die there," she said from a hospital bed in Muzaffarabad, where dozens of injured, including her, were receiving treatment after being airlifted out of the avalanche area.

"It was not less than a miracle that Samina was alive after the natural calamity," Shahnaz, the mother of Shamina, said. However, Shahnaz lost a son and another daughter in the tragedy.

Neelum Valley in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is among several places in Pakistan that has been hit by massive avalanches and other snow-related incidents that has so far killed 114 people.

Neelum Valley is the worst hit as hundreds of building in the area have been destroyed, killing 76 people. In Balochistan 31 people have died while at least 7 people were killed in Sialkot and other districts of Punjab over the past few days.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said the total number of deaths in snow-hit areas across the country over the past couple of days was now 100.