An official with the armed police of neighboring Nepal stated that half of the occupants of a bus carrying forty-three Indians perished on Friday when the vehicle crashed into a river flooded by rain.
According to Shailendra Thapa, a spokesman for the armed police, there were 21 fatalities and 22 injuries overall. She also stated that all 41 passengers and two crew members were Indian and that the car was traveling from the popular tourist destination of Pokhara to Kathmandu when the disaster happened.
The small and hazardous roads in the hilly area can be a problem to drivers, as it becomes difficult to maneuver huge cars around sharp bends.
In the Tanahun area, some 118 kilometers (73 miles) from Kathmandu, rescuers rescued 22 people from the marshyangdi river’s flooded waters. Twelve of the victims had severe injuries and were flown to the capital.
Teams from the army and police descended lengthy metal ladders to reach the river, where they used ropes to extract the dead and injured.
Video footage showed rescuers hauling a toddler who was on the verge of fainting out of danger while exhausted mothers and children rested among debris littered on the banks of the swiftly flowing river.
An official is being sent by India’s neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, where the passengers had boarded the bus, to oversee rescue operations, according to news agency ANI.
