Ten people died in separate road accidents in various districts in the past 24 hours. 

A speeding Tata Sumo swerved off the road and plunged into a pond at Portaha along the East-West Highway in Dhanusha district on Saturday wee hours, killing six persons. Security personnel rescued five others.  

The Tata Sumo (Ba 9 Cha 3314) was en route to Jhapa from Kathmandu. Eleven people, including driver, were in the vehicle when the incident took place at around 2am. According to Inspector Madhav Kafle at Area Police Office in Dhalkebar, the vehicle submerged in the pond which is about 40 feet from the road. The victims drowned in the pond, he added.   

Police identified the deceased as Naya Raj Jibi, 29, of Dharmadevi-9 in Sankhuwasabha, Shardha Regmi Dahal, 35, of Biratnagar-4, Gyan Bahadur Chauhan, 27, of Nirmalidanda in Khotang, Prahlad Neupane, 33, of Morang, Khem Kumar Rana Magar of Letang-8 in Morang and Pranita Rai of Rabi-6 in Panchthar.

One Chhatra Bahadur GC, who sustained serious injuries in the incident, is receiving treatment at Janakpur Zonal Hospital. Police have detained the vehicle driver for investigation. 

Police Inspector Kafle said that driver Sandip Pokharel of Jhapa and four other passengers smashed windows and came out the vehicle submerged in the pond. The driver immediately called police and urged them to rescue the trapped passengers.    

Similarly, two persons died in a jeep accident at Yangwarak Rural Municipality-3 in Panchthar on Friday night. Police identified the deceased as driver Prabesh Yongha, 19, and Sandip Yongha, 16.   

In Sindhuli, five-year-old Najiri Khatun of Indian town of Madhubani died and nine others were injured when a microbus they were travelling in met with an accident at Kamalamai Municipality-8 on Saturday. They were on their way home from Kathmandu to attend funeral of a relative in Madhubani. 

Likewise, Biwayisi Tamang, 18, died when a tipper truck hit him at Siddicharan Muncipality-5 in Okhaldhunga. The victim, a resident of Dudhkunda in Solukhumbu, had been working in the area.