Six people have died during a cold snap in Indian Kashmir, including a pregnant woman who was unable to reach hospital after heavy snowfall blocked local roads, officials said Wednesday.

Snow and freezing temperatures have severed road links, downed electricity and telephone lines, and led to widespread power cuts and water shortages in the restive region of more than 10 million people.

Police said a total of six people had perished in the weather, the coldest in the past two decades according to the local weather office.

Khati Begam, a pregnant woman in the southern village of Narastan, developed abdominal pains on Monday but relatives were unable to take her to hospital because the local roads were all closed.

Her husband, Bashir Gujjar, told AFP he and others eventually carried her on a bed to a neighbouring town eight kilometres (five miles) away but she died before they reached the hospital on Tuesday.

After heavy snowfall on Saturday, local officials say electricity has been restored in most parts of the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and the main highway connecting the region with the rest of India has been re-opened.