"All the stranded vehicles have started moving towards their destinations as the road has been cleared after days of hard work," senior traffic official Abdul Hameed told AFP.

Avalanches and landslides, triggered by lashing rains and snow, blocked the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway linking the summer capital Srinagar with Jammu, the revolt-hit region's winter capital.

"The Indian Air Force has airlifted more than 5,000 people stranded in various places along the highway over the past two days," army spokesman A.K. Mathur said.

Seven planes were used in the rescue operation.

The highway winds through rugged Himalayan foothills and is the only road joining Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley with Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent.

Many of the people had been stranded for more than a week and were sending frantic rescue messages to their relatives.

Some of those stranded had been given shelter in houses along the route.

Bank employee Imtiaz Ahmed, airlifted to Srinagar, said he had survived by taking refuge under a truck.

"I spent six days in the open with very little food and under harsh climatic conditions," he said.

He thanked the Indian Air Force for "saving my life."

A major part of the road caved in at Panthal, 125 kilometers (77 miles) south of Srinagar.

"I was stuck at Panthal for four days," said Gulam Ahmed, 45, who was airlifted to Srinagar on Friday. "It was a nightmare."

Ahmed said part of the area was still under a thick blanket of snow and some voluntary groups were providing food and firewood to the people.

The closure of the road led to food scarcities in the Kashmir valley as thousands of trucks carrying supplies were stranded on the road, officials said, adding that the vehicles had begun arriving in Srinagar.

Late Thursday, the army and police rescued three foreign skiers stranded on a peak after heavy snow triggered avalanches.

The trio -- two Israeli men and a Norwegian woman -- got stuck near Sunshine peak overlooking Gulmarg, the region's top ski destination, 52 kilometres north of Srinagar.

Security forces also rescued 69 people, including four children, travelling in seven taxis and a truck after they were caught in an avalanche in the frontier district of Kupwara, police officer Manzoor Ahmed said.

The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir, where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.

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