The District Police Office identified five of the deceased as 45-year-old Gobinda Basnet of Tribhuvan Municipality-2 and Jiwan Khadka, 32, of Bijauri-2 in Dang; Maili Lama, 50, of Bardaghat Munici-pality-6 and Sumitra Lama, 23, of Thakali Chowk at Kawasoti-8 in Nawalparasi, and her seven-month-old daughter Anshu Lama. DSP Som Thapa said the bodies of one woman and two men are yet to be identified.

Six of the 30 injured passengers are said to be in critical condition. Nine among them are being treated at Bharatpur Medical College. They are Naresh Nepali of Thribhuvan Municipality, Bibek Adhikari of Ghyal Chowk in Gorkha district, Ek Khadka of Bharatpur, Susmita Dhakal of Kawasoti, and her three-month-old son Sushant Dhakal, Gopal Chaudhary of Farsatikar in Rupandehi district, Subhas Nepali of Bijaura, Ganesh Adhikari of Gaidakot in Nawalparasi and Madhumaya Bhattarai of Bhaluhi in Ramnagar.

A night bus (Na 4 Kha 5143) travelling to Dang from Kathmandu collided

with an Indian tanker (UP 32 DN 584) at 8.40am.

Police blame the tanker’s brakes failure for the accident.

Witnesses said the bus was going uphill at Daunne Danda while the tanker was coming downhill.

Six people were killed on the spot while two died on the way to hospital.

Another person died during treatment. The bodies have been kept at Chormar Health Post for post-mortem.

Tanker driver Byas Sharma, 51, of Uttar Pradesh in India, who sustained injuries, was held for an investigation.