Darbhanga woman among 31 killed in Nepal bus accident

RAXAUL: At least 31 persons, including 5 women and 11 children, died when an overcrowded private bus on way to Kathmandu from Rajbiraj fell into Trishuli river at Ghatbesi in Dhading district of Nepal at 5.30am on Saturday. Nepal police said 25 persons were injured in the accident which took place on Prithwi highway, 70km west of Kathmandu.
Dhading superintendent of police Dhrub Raj Raut said most of the bus passengers were from Saptari and Siraha districts of south Nepal and they were returning to Kathmandu after celebrating Chhath Puja on Friday.One Mamata Thakur of Darbhanga in Bihar was also among the dead.
Nepal police sources said the driver lost control near Ghatbesi blind curve and the bus fell 70 feet into the river. One of the survivors, Arjun Chaudhary, said the accident took place due to dense fog and poor visibility.
The death toll rose to 31 late afternoon after more bodies were recovered from the river, police inspector Barun Bahadur Singh said over phone from the scene of the accident. “The number of missing is still unknown as the bus had no record of passengers,” Raut said and added Nepal army personnel and cops with divers were on the job and rescued 25 injured passengers. Durganand Chaudhary and Abhishek Chaudhary, who were critically injured, had been sent to Kathmandu while others were undergoing treatment at Gajuri hospital. Though Nepal police could not ascertain the exact number of passengers in the bus, locals believed at least 10 were trapped inside as the bus was still under water till 3pm.
The police could identify only 12 bodies. They were Naresh Mukhiya, Chandra Shekhar, Chandrawati Devi, Manjit Jha, Raj Yadav, Aditya Yadav, Rama Nand Yadav, Shashi Jha, Parwati Chaudhary, Ranjit Kumar Jha, Sushant Chaudhary and Niwedita Chaudhary from Saptari and Sirsa districts.