Two Nepali students pursuing Chartered Accountancy (CA) in New Delhi, India died due to heavy snowfall and avalanches in Kullu Manali area of Himachal Pradesh at around 8 pm on Wednesday.

Three other students have been seriously injured and are undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Bipra Pokhrel of Kathmandu and Santosh Ayer of Kanchanpur.

Rahul Yadav, a CA student at Laxminagar, said that a team of five students had gone to Himanchal Pradesh for sightseeing and trekking a week ago. They were on their way to the hotel when the snowfall struck them. Apparently, the students had lost their way back to the hotel and reached a heavily snow-affected area.

Yadav said that the victims had called him at 8 pm asking him to rescue them as soon as possible.

“We approached the New Delhi-based Nepali Embassy to facilitate in the rescue process of the stranded Nepali students in Kullu Manali following which all five students were rescued at 12 midnight and admitted to a local hospital. The hospital pronounced death of Pokhrel and Ayer,” said Yadav.

It has been learnt that the students had come to Delhi in August to pursue the CA course.

The other three seriously injured are Nitesh Pradhan, Bikash Kandel and Arjun Mishra. "Their health is gradually improving," Yadav said.

“The postmortem process will begin soon after the family members arrive from Kathmandu. We are facilitating to bring the dead bodies as soon as possible,” said Councilor SSP Yadav Khanal at Nepali Embassy.