Rescuers have pulled a 5-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche that killed both her parents and at least seven of her relatives in a remote mountain village in southern Kosovo.

Col. Shemsi Syla, a spokesman for the Kosovo Security Force, said the girl was discovered in the ruins — buried under 10 metres of snow, when officers heard her voice and the ringing of a cellphone.

Osman Qerreti, an emergency official at the site, told The Associated Press that at least nine members of her family died when the avalanche in the village of Restelica near Kosovo's border with Macedonia and Albania destroyed seven houses, of which only two were inhabited.

The girl, identified only by her last name Reka, was recovering in hospital in the nearby town of Prizren where doctors said her life was not in danger. She had been buried for more than 10 hours.

In this image made from APTN video, rescuers clear snow and rubble from a house flattened by an avalanche in Restelica, southern Kosovo, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. (Associated Press)

NATO peacekeepers, deployed in Kosovo to end the armed conflict between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians in 1999, had been called in to help local authorities in the rescue operation, but were unable to land a helicopter in the blizzard.

Rescuers — mostly local villagers using shovels — initially dug out the bodies of a married couple and their 17-year-old son. Six more bodies were discovered during the overnight and Sunday excavation.

"No bigger tragedy has ever struck this region," said local district official Behar Ramadani. "Two brothers with their wives and children have been killed."

Thousands cut off by snow

The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds of people — most of them homeless. Heavy snow has been blanketing the Balkans for more than two weeks, with Restelica and roads in the region blocked for several days.

In neighbouring Montenegro, where the government introduced a state of emergency because of the deep freeze, special police forces on Sunday managed to reach about 50 train passengers stranded after tracks were blocked by avalanches for two days.

Police said a 55-year-old passenger had died from a heart attack Saturday night, while the other passengers were sheltering in a nearby tunnel waiting for evacuation.

The airport in Podgorica remained closed Sunday and the streets were blocked by snow that has reached 57 centimetres —the highest since measurements started in the capital in 1949.

Authorities have banned driving in the capital, while many cars were damaged after snow-covered trees fell on them.

In Serbia, the heavy snow continued to fall Sunday as some 50,000 people remained stranded in snowbound remote areas, some without electricity.