Brit amongst 19 killed when bus plunges 650ft into ravine on technique to Nepal vacationer hotspot

A Brit is among 19 people killed after a passenger bus fell 650 feet from a hilly road 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.

‘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.

Road accidents are common in mostly mountainous Nepal where the conditions of roads are poor. 

Hundreds die in road crashes in Nepal annually.

In July 2024, two buses with more than 50 people on board were swept off the highway into the same river after a landslide.