At least 18 people were killed and many injured on Wednesday after a bus driver has lost control of his vehicle veered off a mountain road in Nepal, according to police.
According to the local administration, the accident took place at around 3:25 pm the topsy-turvy location of the road. The local administration could not confirm how many passengers were aboard the ill-fated bus.
The police officer said that the bus plunged several hundred feet in the accident in Narpani, a village about 240 kilometres west of the capital, Kathmandu.
The injured were taken to the hospital, police added.
Police, soldiers and villagers helped in the rescue efforts.
No other details were immediately available.
Nepal has seen a heavy rise in vehicle accidents in recent years. According to Traffic Police Office of Nepal, the Himalayan country witnessed a total of 8,918 vehicle accidents killing 254 people in the last fiscal year 2018-2019 that ended in mid-July, a sharp rise from 6,381 accidents in the previous fiscal year.
During the first four-month of the current fiscal year 2019-2020, Nepal has witnessed 4,171 accidents that killed 69 people, according to the Traffic Police Statistics.