Three people were killed and two others injured when a jeep crashed in Topla, Chhayanath Rara Municipality, in Mugu district on Sunday.

The vehicle was travelling from Surkhet to Rara when it veered off the road and plunged around 600 metres, police said.

The victims were identified as 50-year-old Bijay Basnet, 54-year-old Ramesh Bidari and 50-year-old Purna Kumar Thapa, all residents of Kathmandu. Doctors at the District Hospital in Mugu declared them dead on arrival.

The injured are 54-year-old Anju Thapa of Lalitpur and the 58-year-old driver, Kanchan Thapa.

Police teams from the District Police Office in Mugu and Talcha were deployed to the crash site. They rescued the injured and took them to the district hospital for treatment.

Five people, including the driver, were travelling in the vehicle. The cause of the crash has yet to be established.