Four killed in gunbattle in Indian Kashmir

The death toll from a continuing gunbattle in Indian Kashmir rose to four Sunday, a day after militants attacked a paramilitary convoy and then  took refuge in a government building.

The attackers, thought to number three or four, ambushed the convoy on the outskirts of the region's main city of Srinagar on Saturday, killing two paramilitaries and wounding 13, officials have said.

The militants, who are fighting against Indian rule of the disputed Himalayan region, then fled to a nearby government building and forced more than 120 trainees and staff inside to flee.

Fresh firing erupted on Sunday morning after the Central Reserve Police Force and soldiers surrounded the training institute overnight, with the militants still holed up inside.

An army captain was killed in the fresh firing, army spokesman N. N. Joshi told AFP.

Police said a civilian gardener  injured during the initial crossfire also died.

Witnesses said the heavily armed militants had told students and staff at the government-run Entrepreneurship Development Institute to leave immediately on Saturday and "save themselves".

Since 1989 several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces deployed in the Kashmir region, seeking either independence or a merger of the territory with neighbouring Pakistan.

The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.

Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since they won independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full. 

Overall violence in the restive territory has sharply declined during the last decade, but armed clashes between rebels and government forces still break out regularly.