10 trapped after mudslides in flood-hit Indian Kashmir

Mudslides bury at least four houses in Chadoora

SRINAGAR: At least 10 people have been buried by mudslides and hundreds more have been evacuated after heavy rain triggered flooding in Indian Kashmir on Monday, police said.

Mudslides buried at least four houses in Chadoora, the worst hit area of the Himalayan region where hundreds were killed in devastating floods last September.

"Ten to 12 people have been buried under mudslides. A rescue operation is under way," Javid Mujtaba Gillani, inspector general of police for the region, told AFP.

Police said 237 families had been evacuated, most of them from Chadoora, around 15 kilometres west of the main city of Srinagar.

Authorities issued an alert asking people living near the river to move to safer areas and set up relief camps in Srinagar, after the river Jhelum swelled to dangerously high levels.

The government was accused after last year's disaster of neglecting flood defences and of being unprepared to deal with the fall-out.

The 2014 floods killed around 300 people, left thousands more homeless and destroyed property and infrastructure worth an estimated $16 billion.

The Press Trust of India news agency said Monday that schools had been closed and both school and university exams cancelled.