‘This is an abomination’: More than 20 tourists dead in horror attack

More than 20 tourists have died in an India resort town after gunmen opened fire.

At least 26 people were killed in the Indian-administered Kashmir region when gunmen opened fire on tourists on Tuesday, a senior police officer told AFP, with authorities calling it the worst attack on civilians in years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi decried the “heinous act” in the summer retreat of Pahalgam, pledging the attackers “will be brought to justice”.

A tour guide told AFP he reached the scene after hearing gunfire and transported some of the wounded away on horseback.

Waheed, who gave only one name, said he saw several men lying dead on the ground, while a witness who requested anonymity said the attackers were “clearly sparing women”.

“The militants, I can’t say how many, came out of the forest near an open small meadow and started firing,” said the witness.

“They were clearly sparing women and kept shooting at men, sometimes single shot and sometimes many bullets, it was like a storm,” said the man, who cares for horses that are popular with tourists in the area.

The witness said dozens of people fled as the gunmen opened fire.

“They all started running around in panic,” he added.

The attack targeted tourists in Pahalgam, which lies about 90km by road from the key city of Srinagar.

One security source said that foreign tourists were among those shot, but there was no official confirmation.

A senior police officer in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a massacre in which at least 26 people had been killed.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989.

They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan — which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.

Paramedics carry an injured tourist at a hospital in Anantnag, south of Srinagar, on April 22, 2025, following an attack in the town of Pahalgam. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa / AFP

The killings comes a day after Mr Modi met with US Vice President JD Vance, who is on a four-day tour of India.

Mr Vance offered condolences in a social media post, while US President Donald Trump called Modi to quickly offer “full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack”, an Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the killing of at least 26 people as a “vile terror attack” but said India’s “spirit is unbreakable”.

“The vile terror attack in Pahalgam today stole so many innocent lives,” she said in a condolence message on X to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Yet I know that India’s spirit is unbreakable. You will stand strong in this ordeal. And Europe will stand with you,” the European Commission president added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson said he “strongly condemns the armed attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April.

“The Secretary-General stresses attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances.”

Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard, after an attack on Indian tourists by gunmen on April 22, 2025 in Srinagar, India. Picture: Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

‘Abomination’

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that “the attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years”, with the death toll “still being ascertained”.

“This attack on our visitors is an abomination,” he said in a statement.

“The perpetrators of this attack are animals, inhuman and worthy of contempt.” India’s interior minister Amit Shah said he was flying to the site of attack.

“Those involved in this dastardly act of terror will not be spared, and we will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Mr Shah said in a statement.

One senior politician, Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of the Himalayan region, said shortly after the shooting that at least five people had been killed.

“I strongly condemn the cowardly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, which tragically killed five and injured several,” Mr Mufti said, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party.

An Indian police officer stops a tourist vehicle near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Picture: AP Photo/Dar Yasin

Popular tourist destination

Medics at a hospital in Anantnag said they had received some of the wounded, including at least two with gunshot wounds, one with a bullet injury to the neck.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition Congress Party, called the killings “heartbreaking”.

“The whole country is united against terrorism,” he said in a statement, urging the federal government to “take accountability”.

India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory, but fighting decreased since Mr Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019.

“Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakeable and it will get even stronger,” President Modi said in a statement following the attack.

In recent years, the authorities have heavily promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing during the winter months, and to escape the sweltering heat during the summer elsewhere in India.

Indian tourists poses for picture on a boat at a Dal Lake in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Picture: AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan

Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, according to official figures, the majority domestic visitors.

In 2023, India hosted a G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar under tight security in a bid to show that what officials call “normalcy and peace” were returning after a massive crackdown.

A string of resorts are being developed, including some close to the heavily militarised de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

India regularly blames Pakistan for backing gunmen behind the insurgency. Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination.

The worst attack in recent years took place in Pulwama in February 2019, when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.

The deadliest recent attack on civilians was in March 2000, when 36 people, all Indian civilians, were killed.

Originally published as ‘This is an abomination’: More than 20 tourists dead in horror attack