A bus carrying over 40 Indians has plunged into a river in Nepal on Friday. At least 21 people are feared dead and 22 were injured. The rest are missing.
The Indian tourist bus veered off the highway and fell 150 metres into the fast-flowing Marsyangdi River.
“An Indian tourist bus travelling from Pokhara to Kathmandu with around 43 Indians fell 150 metres into the Marshyandi River today,” the Embassy of India said in a post on X.
The bus was headed for the Nepali capital of Kathmandu from the tourist city of Pokhara. It drove off the highway in Aaina Pahara in the Tanahun district.
According to Shailendra Thapa, rescuers pulled 22 people from the rain-swollen waters, in the Tanahun district. Thapa is the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Armed Police Force. The condition of those rescued passengers has not been disclosed yet.
An MI-17 helicopter of the Nepal Army has left for the accident site for a rescue operation.
Rescue teams used long metal ladders to reach the river. They used ropes to pull out the injured and dead.
Exhausted women and children lay amid debris scattered on the banks of the fast-flowing river as rescuers hauled a nearly swooning child out of danger, video images showed.
Mountainous regions often have challenging roads as they are narrow and treacherous. This makes it tough for drivers to manoeuvre large vehicles around the hairpin curves.
TRICKY RAINS
Monsoon season brings heavy rains to Nepal from June to September, often triggering landslides in its Himalayan terrain.
Last month, two buses carrying 65 passengers were washed away by a landslide into the swollen Trishuli River in Nepal.
The bodies from the two buses were washed away down the Trishuli River as far as 100 kilometres.
The passengers had boarded the bus in Gorakhpur.
With Reuters inputs
