A British national is among 19 people who died after a passenger bus plunged approximately 650 feet off a mountainous road into a ravine in west Nepal before dawn on Monday. The bus, carrying 44 passengers, was traveling from Pokhara to Kathmandu when it veered off the road at Behighat in Dhading district, about 50 miles west of the capital. According to senior local police officer Prakash Dahal, 19 people were killed and 25 others injured, including a New Zealander and a Chinese national. Only nine victims have been formally identified so far. China’s Xinhua News Agency previously reported that another Chinese passenger was missing. Mohan Prasad Neupane, an information officer at the district administration office, confirmed that rescue operations were completed by dawn and that the injured are receiving medical treatment. Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

Road accidents are tragically common in Nepal, where steep terrain, narrow highways, and poor infrastructure contribute to hundreds of deaths each year. Earlier this month, a bus carrying a wedding party fell down a mountain slope in west Nepal, killing at least 13 people and injuring 34 others. In August 2024, 14 people died after a bus carrying Indian pilgrims tumbled 500 feet into a ravine near the Marsyangdi River, leaving 16 injured. Just weeks before that, two buses with 59 passengers were swept into a river by a landslide in Chitwan district. These repeated tragedies have renewed concerns about road safety in the mountainous nation.