Five soldiers have gone missing in the border area of India's Jammu and Kashmir state after heavy snowfall in the region.

Three soldiers went missing after heavy snowfall buried a forward post in the Gurez sector of the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday, Defence Ministry spokesman Rajesh Kalia said.

The LoC is a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.

In a separate incident on Monday in the Nowgam sector, two soldiers fell down a slope into a cliff, Kalia said.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing for the five soldiers.

Accidents brought on by heavy snowfall are common in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

 In 2012, an avalanche in the Pakistan-controlled part of the region's Siachen glacier killed 140 people, including 129 soldiers. 

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