A bus carrying at least 40 people plunged off a highway in Nepal into a river on Friday, local police said, with most of the passengers rescued but the search for other survivors continuing.
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“We have already rescued 31 passengers, but 14 of them were unconscious,” district police spokesman Deepak Kumar Rai told AFP. “We have sent several people to the hospital, but we do not have details of their condition yet. We are now searching for the missing,” he added.
A military helicopter has been deployed to transport the rescued passengers, Nepalese army spokesman Gaurav Kumar KC told AFP.
The accident comes a month after two buses carrying 59 passengers fell into a river due to a landslide in the neighbouring Chitwan district (central).
Three people survived, and authorities have so far recovered 20 bodies from the accident. The search continues to find the two buses and the missing passengers.
Fatal accidents are common in Nepal due to poor road conditions, poor vehicle maintenance and reckless driving.
These incidents are most deadly during the annual monsoon (June to September), when rains cause landslides and floods in this mountainous country.
