Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attack in Baisaran meadow, some three miles from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam.
At least three dozen people were wounded, many of them seriously, according to two senior police officers.
“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.
The two officers said at least four militants fired at dozens of tourists from close range.
Most of the killed tourists were Indian, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy.
At least 24 bodies were collected in the aftermath of the attack, and two people died while being taken for medical treatment.
An Indian security officer stands guard in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists in Indian controlled Kashmir (Dar Yasin/AP)
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Police and soldiers are now searching for the attackers.
“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” India’s home minister, Amit Shah, wrote on social media.
He arrived in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and convened a meeting with top security officials.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cutting short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to New Delhi early on Wednesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and stressed that “attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Kashmir’s top religious cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said on social media that “such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir, which welcomes visitors with love and warmth”.
US vice president JD Vance, who was visiting India, called it a “devastating terrorist attack”.
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