At least 19 passengers of a bus reportedly died and dozens were injured after the vehicle drove off a mountain highway in Nepal early Monday. The bus was on its way to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
There were dozens of people on board the bus, which was heading from the resort city of Pokhara to Kathmandu when it drove off the Prithvi highway after midnight, police said, according to Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The bus reportedly rolled down a mountain slope and landed on the banks of Trishuli river near Benighat, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Kathmandu.
Visuals purportedly from the crash site showed first responders near the mangled bus.
A 24-year-old British national is among the fatalities, according the AP report, which cited a statement from the Dhading district police office. Only nine bodies were identified by 1 pm on Monday.
Among the injured is a Chinese national, who was admitted to the National Trauma Center in Kathmandu, and a 27-year-old woman from New Zealand who received minor injuries and was being treated at a local hospital. China’s official Xinhua News Agency, citing the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, reported earlier that one other Chinese national was missing.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Bus accidents are not uncommon in Nepal. Earlier this month, a bus carrying a wedding party veered off a mountain road in west Nepal and tumbled down a slope in a crash that killed at least 13 people while 34 more were injured.
The bus carrying members of a wedding party was on its way back home when the bus fell about 200 meters (650 feet), landing on flat ground near Budgaun village, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Kathmandu.
In 2024, two buses with 65 people on board fell into the Trishuli river and were lost, with most aboard either having died or still missing. Wreckage of one of the buses was found only this year, deep in sand.
