At least 65 people, including several Indians, are believed to be missing after a massive landslide swept away two buses in Nepal, pushing the vehicles into a swollen river on Friday, media reports said.
The two buses with around 65 passengers on board went missing in the Trishuli River on Madan-Ashrit Highway in Central Nepal.
Confirming the matter to news agency ANI, Chief District Officer (Chitwan), Indradev Yadav said, "As per the preliminary information both the buses were carrying a total of 63 people including the bus drivers. The landslide swept the buses at around 3:30 am. We are at the incident site and a search operation is underway. Incessant rain is hampering our efforts to search for the missing buses."
According to Yadav, the Kathmandu-bound Angel bus and Ganpati Deluxe, en route to Gaur from the capital, met with the accident at around 3:30 am.
Angel bus was carrying 24 passengers while Ganpati Deluxe had 41 on board. According to The Kathmandu Post, three of those on the Deluxe bus managed to escape after jumping off the vehicle.
According to latest information, police said that there were seven Indian nationals among the passengers on the Birgunj to Kathmandu Angel bus. Of these, six have been identified as Santosh Thakur, Surendra Sah, Adit Miyaan, Sunil, Shahnawaj Alam and Ansari. The remaining one person is yet to be indentified.
Search and rescue operations are underway with full swing in the Central Nepal region.
Superintendent of Police Bhawesh Rimal said that the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force personnel are heading toward the incident sites for the rescue operations.
Reportedly, the debris from the landslides disrupted traffic at various places on the Narayanghat-Mugling road section.
Meanwhile, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda expressed agony over the incident and directed authorities to search and rescue the passengers promptly.
In a post on X, Prachanda said, "I am deeply saddened by the loss of nearly five dozen passengers and the loss of property due to floods and landslides in different parts of the country when a bus was washed away by a landslide on the Narayangadh-Muglin road section. I direct all agencies of the government, including the home administration, to search and effectively rescue the passengers."
Notably, given the inclemen weather in the region, all flights from Kathamandu to Chitwan's Bharatpur have been cancelled.
(With agency inputs)
