Death toll in Dhading bus accident has reached 31.

SP Dhrubaraj Raut, Chief at the District Police Office, Dhading, informed the death toll has reached 31 and authorities said the toll could rise further.

The incident occured when the ill-fated bus heading towards Kathmandu from Rajbiraj plunged into the Trishuli River at Ghatbesi in Dhading district at around 5 am on Saturday.

Police have recovered 20 bodies from the river, out of which 12 bodies have been identified while identities of remaining bodies are yet to be ascertained.

Police suspect the death toll could rise further.

According to police, most of the deceased are from Saptari district. They are identified as Sishi Kumari Jha, Raj Kumar Yadav, Naresh Mukhiya, Chandrarekha, Chandrawati Jha, Manjit Kumar Jha, Parwati Chaudhary, Aditya Yadav, Ranjit Kumar Jha, Sushant Chaudhary and Ramananda Yadav.

One Indian Mamata Devi Thakur also died in the accident.

It is learnt 15 passengers managed to save their life by swimming to the river bank. They are all injured.

The exact number of passengers on board the bus is not known, therefore, rescuers have no idea how many bodies might be in the river. Police believe there are still dozens of passengers trapped inside the bus.

Police have begun the rescue operation but as the bus is still inside the river, they see a very slim chance that the trapped passengers could be rescued alive.

The ill-fated bus (Na 6 Kha 1467) belonging to Santosh Travels fell into the river at 5:30am today, according to police.

SP Dhrubaraj Raut, Chief at the District Police Office, Dhading, said that two passengers have been sent to Trauma Centre in Kathmandu for treatment while 13 others have been sent to Gajuri.

Although the exact number of passengers is not clearly known, the injured passengers said that there were around 50 passengers inside the bus while few more were travelling on the roof of the bus.