BEIJING: More bodies were found on Friday following an avalanche that buried vehicles outside a highway tunnel in Tibet, raising the death toll to 28, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Images from the scene at the exit of the Duoxiongla Tunnel in Tibet's southwest showed about half a dozen backhoes digging through deep snow. Reports said about 1,000 rescuers had joined the effort.

Rescuers ended search operations at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

Tons of snow and ice collapsed onto the mouth of the tunnel connecting Medog County to Pad township in the city of Nyingchi at 7:50 p.m. on Tuesday, trapping drivers in their vehicles.

The avalanche was triggered by powerful winds and rising temperatures that day, according to the emergency rescue headquarters.

Many of the people trapped were headed home for the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Sunday.

Nyingchi lies at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), about a five-hour drive from the regional capital Lhasa, along a highway that opened in 2018.

Avalanches are common in the Himalayas, home to the world's highest mountains.

In October, at least 26 people died when a mountaineering expedition was caught in an avalanche on Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II in India's northern state of Uttarakhand.