19 killed as bus plunges 650ft into ravine on way to tourist hotspot

A Brit is among 19 people killed after a passenger bus fell 650 feet from a hilly road into a ravine in west Nepal before dawn on Monday.

Only nine of the dead have been identified so far, the police said, adding that the bus was carrying 44 people in all.

A New Zealander and a Chinese national were among the 25 injured when the bus, headed to the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, from the town of Pokhara, fell 650 feet from the road at Behighat in Dhading district, 50 miles west of Kathmandu.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier that one other Chinese national was missing.

‘Out of 44, in total 19 people died, and 25 are undergoing treatment,’ senior local police officer Prakash Dahal said, confirming one British citizen was among the dead.

Mohan Prasad Neupane, information officer at the district administration office, said the rescue operation had been completed by dawn.

‘The injured are undergoing treatment,’ Neupane said.

Authorities are now investigating the cause of the accident.

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