The ill-fated bus (Na 4 Kha 6857) veered off the road and plunged 500 metres at Kalikhola at around 6:45pm. The vehicle was on its way to Tikapur, Kailali, from Kalikot. Security personnel and locals rescued the injured and took them to Birendranagar for treatment. “The rescue was difficult due to a steep slope,” Dailekh DSP Madhav Prasad Shrestha told the Post from the site. He said the number of deaths could rise. Rescue work continued until press time.

The vehicle had left for Tikapur carrying 36 passengers. More had got onto it on the way. The injured claimed that the driver’s assistant had been driving when the accident happened. Most of the passengers were from Kalikot and Bajura, on their way to India for work.