KATMANDU: At least 63 people were missing in Nepal on Friday after a landslide triggered by heavy monsoon rains swept two buses off a highway and into a river, authorities said.
Dozens of search and rescue personnel were combing the site for survivors of the accident in the central district of Chitwan, district official Khimananda Bhusal told AFP.
Bhusal said that the buses were carrying at least 66 people between them but three passengers had been able to escape before they crashed into the Trishuli river and were now being treated in hospital.
“We are not sure of the total number because the buses could have picked up others on the road,” he said.
“The river has swollen and no one else has been found yet.”
The accident took place along the Narayanghat-Mugling highway, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital Katmandu early Friday at 3:30 am local time (2145 GMT Thursday).
One bus was heading from the capital Katmandu to Gaur in Rautahat district in southern Nepal and the other was en route to Katmandu from southern Birgunj.
A driver was killed in a separate accident on the same road after a boulder hit his bus. He died as he was being treated at a hospital.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed sadness over the accident in a post on social media platform X.
“I direct all agencies of the government, including the home administration, to search for and effectively rescue the passengers,” he said.
Deadly crashes are common in the Himalayan republic because of poorly constructed roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
Nearly 2,400 people lost their lives on Nepal’s roads in the 12 months to April, according to government figures.
Twelve people were killed and 24 were injured in an accident in January when a bus heading to Katmandu from Nepalgunj fell into a river.
Road travel becomes deadlier during the annual monsoon season as rains trigger landslides and floods across the mountainous republic.
Monsoon rains across South Asia from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies, but also bring widespread death and destruction.
The rainfall is hard to forecast and varies considerably, but scientists say climate change is making the monsoon stronger and more erratic.
Floods, landslides and lightning strikes have killed 88 people across the country since the monsoon began in June, according to police figures.
Search for dozens missing after landslide sweeps buses into Nepal river is suspended
https://arab.news/yd6c3
Search for dozens missing after landslide sweeps buses into Nepal river is suspended
- At least three passengers survived with minor injures by jumping off the buses
- A total of seven Indian nationals were among the missing passengers
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — when police reinforcements arrived, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
