At least 25 people were killed and 43 others injured when a crowded passenger bus swerved off the road and plunged down the hillside, around 500 metres, at Birtadeurali VDC in Kavre district on Monday, in one of the deadliest road accidents in the country in recent years.

The bus with the registration number Ba 3 Kha 106 was en route from Kathmandu to Madankudari in Koshipari area of Kavre.

According to police, there were around 90 people on board the 35-seater bus when the accident took place at around 12:15pm on a dirt road. The incident site is 50 kilometres from Dhulikhel, the district headquarters of Kavre. Rescuers reached the site about an hour and a half after the incident. Rescue efforts were hampered by incessant rain in the area. Some of those travelling on the roof managed to survive by jumping off the vehicle. The bus driver and his assistant are at large.

A Nepal Army chopper airlifted 28 seriously injured passengers to Kathmandu. Fifteen others are receiving treatment at Dhulikhel Hospital. Most of the victims were from Kattikedeurali and Madankunari VDCs in the district. They were returning home to sign housing reconstruction aid agreement.

Fifteen injured passengers have been admitted to the National Trauma Centre and nine have been admitted to the TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, however, said 26 people died in the accident. Bodies of 25 passengers were recovered from the incident site, and one passenger died while undergoing treatment, said the ministry.

According to eyewitnesses, the engine of the bus suddenly had stalled before it plunged down. Dalman Tamang of Birtadeurali-4, one of the injured, said the bus was too crowded with hardly any place for him to stand inside. “I was hanging on the door,” said Tamang. “I managed to jump off the vehicle and in no time, the bus plunged down. Most of those who were on the roof survived as they jumped off the vehicle.”

SP Rajeshnath Bastola said overcrowding caused the accident.

Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi said on Monday evening that the government and transport entrepreneurs would bear the treatment cost of the injured.

3 dead, 27 hurt in Baitadi crash

BAJHANG: At least three persons died and 27 others were injured in a bus accident at Siddeshwor VDC-3 in Baitadi district on Monday. Condition of 14 is said to be critical. The injured have been taken to Dadeldhura and Dhangadhi for treatment. The bus was en route from Dhangadhi to Chairpur, the district headquarters of Bajhang. (PR)