Efforts were on to rescue the four persons from two villages of Machil area who were caught in a snowstorm in Kupwara district. "Six persons crossed the Z Gali last afternoon in Machil sector. But our posts reported that only two reached their villages," said Defence spokesman Col Uma Maheswara. "The men who reached their villages said four people got stuck in a snowstorm somewhere between Z Gali and Machil."

Maheswara said the upper parts of north Kashmir and areas close to the LoC had received heavy snowfall. "The heavy snow is still continuing in the area," he added.

While North Kashmir received heavy to moderate snowfall, Srinagar and parts of south Kashmir received six inches of rain and snow, disrupting normal life in the Valley. Most parts of Kashmir had been without electricity since Thursday night as the Power Development Department failed to restore power supply. "For the past 18 hours we have been without electricity," said Bashir Ahmad of Faizabad locality. "It's unfortunate that the administration gets paralysed with four inches of snow."

Meteorological department officials in Srinagar said rain and snowfall would continue late into the evening. "We are hopeful that the weather will be clear in a couple of days," they added.

Jammu-Srinagar national highway was also closed for traffic after rain and snow triggered landslides at different places along the highway. Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road too got blocked due to the landslides at different places.

According to the Police Control Room (PCR), Jammu, the national highway was opened on Thursday afternoon but was closed in the evening due to bad weather. Later, heavy rainfall and hailstorm brought the traffic to a standstill at many places.

A traffic police officer said over the phone from Ramban district that hundreds of vehicles had been stranded due to the road blockade.

The traffic police authorities suspended the movement of vehicular traffic on both sides of the tunnel due to slippery conditions caused by rain on this side of Jawahar Tunnel and snow on the other.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Traffic) National Highway Vijay Singh Sambyal said the traffic was stopped at Udhampur and Ramban after rainfall and shooting stones on Thursday evening.

Rain and hailstorm also affected the movement of pilgrims at 13-km-long track towards the holy shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi from Katra on Thursday night. Later, the yatra was resumed.