SRINAGAR: Four civilians were killed and Saturday in Indian-controlled Kashmir when the car they were traveling in was hit by a mortar shell fired by Pakistani soldiers, police said, as the rival nations continued to exchange heavy fire across their de facto border in the disputed territory.

Twenty three others were injured, some seriously, as mortar shells landed in the border village of Balakote, 200 km south of the main city of Srinagar.

“The four died when their car was hit by a shell fired from the Pakistani side. Twenty are injured, some of them had to be flown to a hospital in Jammu (the nearest city),” inspector general of police for the region, Danesh Rana, said.

India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals have been exchanging heavy intermittent fire across the Line of Control almost daily for a week.