Fears are growing of food shortages among Kashmir's poorest residents as the region enters the third day of an unprecedented lock-down.

In some of the first accounts to surface after India shocked the world by stripping the area of Kashmir's special status, witnesses have told The Telegraph of mounting desperation as food supplies and money has dried up.

India announced a strict curfew and communications blackout on Monday, with the movement of goods and people in and out of the region also strictly controlled.

But panic buying last week, as rumours circulated of an imminent curfew, saw shelves stripped of food, ATM's emptied and prices rocket - leaving many of Kashmir's poorest without key supplies.

Sanna, 23, a Kashmiri student, was one of few residents to have been allowed to leave the region so far. When leaving she told The Telegraph she had been approached by “five or six” different people who claimed their families were starving.