An avalanche caused a tragedy

An avalanche has crashed onto a house in southeast Turkey, killing a woman and injuring her husband and two children.

The Anadolu Agency says villagers dug through the snow on Thursday to rescue the family from their crumbled home near the village of Secmen, in the southeastern province of Mus.

The 30-year-old woman, however, died of injuries soon after.

Another avalanche closed down a highway linking the southeastern provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir for some 10 hours on Thursday.

Much of Turkey has been affected by heavy snow storms and below average temperatures.

AP