A landslide in the Himalayan region of Kashmir killed 16 people, police have said, as Indian authorities continued working to rescue stranded villagers.

Babies were among those killed when a hillside collapsed onto a house in Laden village, about 40km (25 miles) from the capital Srinagar, before dawn on Monday 30 March.

Kashmir landslides
A man carries a dead baby during funeral prayers in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Kashmir landslides
A man carries the body of a child pulled out from the rubble after a hillside collapsed onto a house at Laden village Danish Ismail/Reuters
Kashmir landslides
Villagers and rescue workers carry the body of a victim after a hillside collapsed onto a house in Laden village Danish Ismail/Reuters
Kashmir landslides
People carry bodies during a funeral in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Kashmir landslides
An Indian army sniffer dog looks for a missing boy in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Kashmir landslides
Villagers and members of the military search for bodies following landslides in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

Army and police used shovels and diggers to search for those missing.

"We are still searching for one more person who is still buried," said Fayaz Ahmad Lone, a local police superintendent.

Kashmir landslides
Relatives of landslide victims mourn during a funeral in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Kashmir landslides
Danish Ismail/Reuters
Kashmir landslides
Relatives of landslide victims mourn during a funeral in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Kashmir landslides
Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

Police said two other people died in flash floods in another part of the state. Hundreds of people fled their homes as Kashmir's main rivers began to swell and weather forecasters predicted further downpours in the region that was struck by devastating floods seven months ago.

India is experiencing more extreme rainfall events as the global climate warms, according to a study of 50 years of data by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

Kashmir landslides
The body of a child lies on a stretcher after it was pulled out from the mud in Laden village Danish Ismail/Reuters
Kashmir landslides
Landslide victims lie inside a room before funeral prayers in the village of Laden Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

The past month has been the wettest in more than a century, and damage to crops has been blamed for a spate of farmer suicides in recent weeks.

In September, the Kashmir valley suffered the worst flooding in more than a century, killing more than 200 people and displacing almost a million for weeks.

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