At least 10 trapped after mudslides in flood-hit Indian Kashmir

Mudslides buried at least four houses in Chadoora, the worst hit area of the Himalayan region where hundreds were killed in devastating floods last September.

"Ten to 12 people have been buried under mudslides. A rescue operation is under way," Javid Mujtaba Gillani, inspector general of police for the region, told AFP.

Police said 237 families had been evacuated, most of them from Chadoora, around 15 kilometres (10 miles) west of the main city of Srinagar.

With more rain forecast for the next few days, authorities set up relief camps in Srinagar and issued an alert asking people living near the river Jhelum to move to safer areas.

A flood alert was issued early Monday after the river swelled to dangerously high levels.

Local media said the main highway had been closed, while schools were shut for the day and both school and university exams cancelled.

The 2014 floods killed around 300 people, left thousands more homeless and destroyed property and infrastructure worth an estimated $16 billion.

The government was accused of neglecting flood defences and faced criticism for its response to the disaster, with many parts of Srinagar still cut off days later.

Television footage at the time showed furious locals stoning army rescuers and helicopters carrying relief to flood-hit areas of the state.

The then chief minister Omar Abdullah defended his government's handling of the worst floods to hit the mountainous region in a century, saying no one could have foreseen the disaster's magnitude.

Abdullah's National Conference party was ousted in elections earlier this year, a result attributed in part to voter anger over the handling of the disaster.

About a dozen rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence or merger of the territory with Pakistan.

Although violence has declined during the last decade, the fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, dead.