Rains flattened a house in the northern city of Jaipur, killing one person and injuring three others, the Press Trust of India said as the freak downpour tore down trees and streetlights in other towns and cities of the drenched region.

India's meteorological department said the freak weather was the result of a cyclonic development over the Himalayas in Indian Kashmir and adjoining Himachal Pradesh state.

Rains also lashed Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, bringing relief to millions from a searing heat wave in these three eastern and central states, the weather office said, adding that parts of India's remote far east also saw a heavy downpour.

The unexpected snowfall was the first in the southern Kashmiri city of Jammu during summer in the past 20 years, it said as the freak weather snapped power and telephone lines in the higher mountains.

The Kashmiri towns of Anantnag, Pahalgam and Shopian were covered by 25 to 75 millimetres (one to three inches) of snow, the weather officials added.

Snowfall also hit campaigning in Kashmir's remaining Anantnag constituency where voters are due to cast their ballots in parliamentary elections on May 5, state government officials said in the summer capital Srinagar, where rain clogged streets.

In Himachal Pradesh, more than half-a-metre (two feet) of snow has fallen in the past three days in the Rohtang pass area, state officials said.

Other parts of the Himalayan state, which neighbours Kashmir, were lashed by hail, rainstorms and icy winds.

"Police rescued over 100 people, mostly tourists, late Thursday after they were stranded along the Rohtang pass," police officer Kushal Sharma told AFP by telephone from the northern resort town of Manali.

The 13,050 feet (3,978 metre) Rohtang pass, which links the Kullu valley with the remote Lahaul-Spiti valley, was opened on April 10, almost two months earlier than usual because of lighter snowfalls this winter and better snowclearing equipment.

About 20 of those caught in the snow were sheltering at a rescue camp at Koksar below the pass, said rescue coordinator Vinay Thakur.

Dozens of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the Himalayan pass.

"We sent a rescue team to the pass Friday morning to look for more stranded people but we haven't heard from them so far," he said.

The met officials forecast further snowfalls in the two states in the next two days, and said parts of the northern plains were likely to be hit by hailstorms.

TERRA.WIRE