SRINAGAR, India, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Indian troops found 13 more bodies in a destroyed army ammunition depot in Indian Kashmir, taking the death toll from a huge fire and explosions at the site to 17, officials said on Tuesday.

Most of the dead were soldiers or firefighters who died after the fire broke out on Saturday, triggering massive explosions that sent shells and shrapnel falling on nearby villages.

Army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel A.K. Mathur said nine soldiers were still missing.

The fire, the blasts and the resulting flying ordnance sparked a mass evacuation of villagers in Anantnag district in southern Kashmir where the arms storage facility is located.

On Tuesday, dozens of army bomb disposal units were scouring villages in the area and the surrounding countryside.

"Hundreds of unexploded shells are lying in paddy fields and apple orchards," said Abdul Gani, a farmer who has a house near the weapons depot, said by telephone. "God knows when we can go back home."

The army said it was investigating the cause of the fire and denied claims from two Kashmiri militant groups that they had fired rockets at the weapons depot, setting off the inferno.

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