In a tragic incident, eight tourists from Kerala were found dead in a hotel room of a resort in Daman in Nepal’s Makwanpur district.
Superintendent of Police, Makawanpur District Police Office, Sushil Singh Rathaur said that suffocation might have caused the deaths as the deceased Indian nationals were reportedly using a gas heater in the room they were staying.
Speaking to the media, Union Minister for State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan confirmed that the tourists comprising two families of Thiruvananthapuram were reported dead in Nepal Makwanpur district.
“The families of Renjith and Praveen have been reported dead. What has been informed is they died due to suffocation. Their bodies have now been brought to Kathmandu and will be taken to Thiruvananthapuram,” said the minister.
The eight Indian nationals, two couples and four children, were part of a group of 15 people who had travelled to Pokhara from Kerala and were returning home. Police said on the way back they had stopped at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman.
According to the resort manager, the guests who arrived at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday from Pokhara were staying in a room and turned on a gas heater to keep warm. Although the group had booked a total of four rooms, eight of them stayed in a single room while the remaining in the other rooms, the manager said. He said all the windows and the room door were bolted.
Police were informed of their unconscious state after other members of the group went to check on them this morning, the manager said.
Subsequently, a helicopter airlifted the eight tourists to hospital in Kathmandu where they were declared dead.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister’s Office has said that based on the direction of CM Pinarayi Vijayan, the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) is in touch with the Indian Embassy in Nepal.
It is expected that after autopsy, the bodies will be brought to Kerala on Wednesday.
The Kerala Chief Minister has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar requesting his ministry to intervene for rendering assistance to the families of the eight deceased.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed his grief over the tragic death of the Indian tourists and added that the Indian Embassy in Nepal
is closely following the situation.