India's air force has airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zero temperatures on a Himalayan highway by avalanches and landslides, officials said yesterday.

Nearly 2,000 others remained stuck but authorities said they hoped to open the road in Kashmir later on Friday as labourers and engineers clear the way using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels.

Avalanches and landslides, triggered by lashing rains and snow, blocked the 300-kilometer (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 AK Mathur said.

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.