Residents of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said they fled to nearby hills after Indian airstrikes hit part of the city early on Wednesday.
They claimed that when the earth trembled and explosions echoed, loudspeakers in the mosque advised people to seek cover, reports Reuters.
"We came outside," Muhammad Shair Mir, 46, recalled, summarizing the evening's activities. "Then there was another explosion. The entire home shifted. Everyone became terrified, so we all left, took our children, and ascended the hill.
After morning, a large crowd gathered close to a mosque that had been damaged in the strikes, with its minaret tumbled and its roof destroyed. The area had been roped off by security personnel.
Three people were killed close to the mosque that collapsed, according to the district commissioner, a high-ranking local official. According to Pakistan's military, Indian attacks in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir resulted in 26 fatalities and 46 injuries.
India said it was targeting "terrorist camps" that held weapons and training facilities and functioned as recruitment, launchpad, and indoctrination centers when it began the strikes early on Wednesday.
As tensions between the nuclear-armed adversaries grew following a fatal attack by Islamist gunmen on tourists in Indian Kashmir, Pakistan referred to it as a "blatant act of war." It claimed that there were no militant camps in any of the targeted sites.
According to district officials, mortar and small weapons fire between the two troops continued into the morning near the Line of Control, which separates Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, killing at least six civilians on the Pakistani side.
At least 10 people were murdered and close to 50 were injured in Indian Kashmir, according to police.
Ahmed Ajaz Scroll was informed by Jan, the Poonch Haveli MLA, that he went to the Poonch district hospital, where nine of the deceased were transported. He continued by saying, "one of the civilians was killed in a remote area, and their body was not taken to a hospital."
There were two children among the dead.
According to Jan, the shelling in Poonch started around three in the morning and has been going on sporadically since.
He said: "Many army installations in Poonch are surrounded by local residences." "There have been a lot of casualties because of this."
"The situation is still tense, and the shelling has become more intense," Jan continued.
According to AFP, the two nations' forces engaged in gunfire, injuring 29 people.
According to local authorities, schools were closed and exams were canceled in Muzaffarbad, while hospitals were open and a few small businesses operated in the morning.
Shair Mir reported spending four hours outdoors with his family. He claimed that the remainder of his neighbors were terrified and that several had been injured and taken to the hospital.
"This is wrong ... poor innocent people, our poor mothers are sick, our sisters are sick .. our houses were rattled, our walls have cracked," he continued.
The capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, is where Mr. Waheed resides. On Wednesday, Indian missile attacks struck at least three locations.
Early on Wednesday morning, Mohammed Waheed was sound asleep in his house in Pakistan-administered Kashmir when a massive explosion rocked his house.
He told the BBC that he had gotten out of bed and run outside with his family and neighbors, saying, "Before we could even process what was happening, more missiles struck, causing widespread panic and chaos."
"Children were crying, women were running around, trying to find safety."
One of the Indians slain has been identified as Ruby Kaur, who resided in the Poonch region of India along the Line of Control.
According to her uncle, Buava Singh, who spoke to the BBC, Ms. Kaur was killed instantly and her daughter was injured when a mortar shell struck close to her home at 1:45am, local time, in the morning.
"Her husband was not keeping well. She woke up to make tea for him when the mortar shell landed close to her house," he said.
He added that the heavy shelling on Wednesday morning was something "we have never seen so far". Singh claims that because the area lacked communal bunkers, locals were compelled to seek refuge in their houses.
"The shrapnel hit her head. She was bleeding heavily. We rushed her to a nearby hospital, but she was declared dead," Mr Singh said.
Muhammad Younis Shah in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, described how four missiles fired by India landed on an educational complex in the Nangal Sahadan suburb, destroying a mosque in the process, reports BBC.
"There is a school and college for children, a hostel, and a medical complex here," he says. "The first three missiles came in succession, while the fourth missile came with an interval of five to seven minutes."
While rescue operations in the are underway, locals say they are anticipating further escalation of the violence, and terrified of what may come next.
"We're terrified, and we don't know what to do," says Mr Waheed. "People are fleeing their homes and the sense of uncertainty is overwhelming."
His fellow Muzaffarabad resident Shahnawaz echoes this, saying he and his family were now "desperately searching for safe locations."
