SRINAGAR, India, March 14 (Reuters) - Flash floods triggered by heavy snowfall have killed at least 12 people in Indian Kashmir, including several buried in their homes, police said on Wednesday. Power was cut off in several areas and phones were not working. Authorities have closed schools for a week as many roads, including the main highway that links the disputed Kashmir Valley to the rest of India, were blocked by snow and landslides. Srinagar, the main city in the region, witnessed its heaviest snowfall in a decade for the month of March, a weather official said. Separately, five Hindu pilgrims, including two children, froze to death on Monday while on their way to Vaishno Devi, one of Hinduism's holiest shrines in Jammu and Kashmir. They died due to exposure after the road they were travelling on was blocked by a landslide. In 2005, more than 225 people were killed in Kashmir after the heaviest snowfall in nearly two decades triggered avalanches.
