A heavy gale followed by torrential rains threw life haywire in the valley on Friday. Nearly 200 tourists in shikaras were rescued from the turbulent waters of the Dal Lake late Friday evening.

The powerful gale uprooted trees and electric poles and swept away many roofs in Srinagar and other major towns of the valley, resulting in a massive electricity supply failure, which could not be restored till late Friday night.

"Fire services personnel and the police were pressed into service to rescue over 200 tourists from the Dal Lake," Basharat Ahmad Dhar, Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir who was personally supervising the rescue operation said.

He added that several rooftops had been blown away by the powerful winds, even though no casualty reports had been received from anywhere so far.

He also said that inter-district transport was suspended because of fallen trees on the roads; their clearance was hampered because of darkness and the heavy rain.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road was closed for traffic because of fallen poplar trees.

"It will take us sometime to restore the snapped power lines because of the wind and the subsequent tree falls at several places that brought down our transmission cables," said Nissar Hussain, Chief Engineer, Power.