At lest 32 killed, 17 injured in bus accident in Nepal
Kathmandu, Oct 12 (EFE).- At least 32 people were killed and 17 others injured – many of them seriously – on Tuesday after a bus carrying them went off the road and fell into a 300-meters (1000 feet) deep ravine in a mountainous area of Nepal.
The bus had been carrying over 50 passengers, most of them migrant workers and students, from the city of Nepalganj – situated in the southern plains – to the remote hilly district of Mugu.
Most of the people were headed back home for the biggest Hindu festival in Nepal, Dashain.
“Preliminary investigations have shown that the bus crashed due to brake failure,” district police chief Ram Bahadur Mahat told EFE, adding that rescue work was still going on.
At least 22 people died on the spot, while the rest passed away on the way to or in hospitals, where the wounded have also been admitted, Mahat said.
Three passengers managed to jump off the vehicle and escaped unhurt.
Home ministry spokesperson Phanindra Mani Pokharel told EFE that the victims had been transferred in helicopters of the military and Summit Air company towards Nepalganj in the south or the city of Surkhet in the north.
The bad condition of the roads, poor state of vehicles, overloading and rash driving are the most common causes of traffic accidents in Nepal.
Earlier this week, eight people were killed on Monday after an all-terrain vehicle fell off a cliff in the Annapurna area, situated in the northern Himalaya mountain range. EFE
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