New Delhi: A bus carrying Indian pilgrims met with an accident on Saturday in Nepal’s Gandaki province and plunged down a slope. All seven people killed were Indian nationals, while several other got injured in the accident after the bus fell in the gorge, police revealed.
The microbus carrying the pilgrims was returning from Manakamana Temple when it plunged off the road in Gorkha District, as reported by PTI. The chief of the District Traffic Police Office of Gorkha district, Suraj Aryal, revealed that out of the seven dead, two were women and five were men.
The deceased have been identified as 58-year-old Muthu Kumar, 58-year-old Anamalik, 59-year-old Meenakshi, 53-year-old Sivagami, 57-year-old Vijayal, 58-year-old Meena and 60-year-old Tamilarsi.
According to the Kathmandu Post, the other injured passengers have been rescued and are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Anbukhaireni. As per the reports, the driver escaped unhurt while his assistant was injured in the accident.
How did the incident take place?
The accident took place on a road between the highway and the temple near Shahid Lakhan village. The passengers were returning from the revered Manakamana Temple, which is a popular Hindu temple where devotees believed a goddess would fulfil their wishes.
The bus slipped off a curve and rolled down the mountainside about 150 meters before landing in a ravine. Last month, a similar accident unfolded on February 23 when the vehicle drove off a mountain highway in Nepal. In that incident, at least 19 passengers were killed, and dozens were injured. The bus was heading back from Pokhara to Kathmandu when it drove off the Prithvi Highway after midnight.