At least 15 people died and more than 30 others were injured, some critically, in three separate road accidents in Kaski, Syangja and Achham districts in the past 24 hours.

Eight people died after a passenger jeep rolled off a cliff road at Annapurna Rural Municipality in Kaski district on Monday.

According to the police, the jeep en route to Ghandruk from Nayapul of the rural municipality veered off the road and fell off the Kalabhir at around 2pm on Monday.

Police informed that six people from Kathmandu—two 18-year-old youths, two women aged 20 and 24 years and two men aged 20 and 22 years —one 27-year-old man, a resident of Gorkha district currently living in Gongabu, and the 42-year-old driver from Nayapul in the rural municipality were killed in the accident.

District Police Office Chief SP Ramesh Thapa informed that the bodies of all the victims are being brought to the Western Regional Hospital in Pokhara for postmortem.

One of the passengers, 20-year-old Debika Ghising, was rescued by the locals. She did not suffer any major injuries. She was reportedly ejected from the rear door of the vehicle and was trapped on the cliffside.

“The vehicle could not climb the steep road. It moved back and skidded off the road. I don’t know how I got stuck in a tree and survived,” said Ghising, whose younger brother was killed in the crash. She returned home after receiving treatment at Gandaki Medical College.

The eight passengers were heading towards Ghandruk, a popular tourist destination in Gandaki Province, for Dashain holidays.

Kumar Prasad Gurung, the chairman of ward 10 of the rural municipality, said that construction workers nearby had witnessed the accident. According to the witnesses, the jeep went into reverse past Hundu on the cliff road and fell some 150 metres off the road.

In Achham, four people died and 15 others were injured when a Bolero jeep swerved off the road and plunged around 250 metres below at Panchadewal Municipality on Sunday evening. The vehicle was carrying people returning home from a wedding ceremony. Police on Monday detained the vehicle driver for investigation. Two critically injured passengers were referred to Nepalgunj while others are receiving treatment at Achham District Hospital and Bayalpata Hospital.

Similarly, in Syangja, three persons, including a four-year-old girl, died and 14 others were injured when a jeep skidded off the road in Waling Municipality-10 on Sunday evening. The vehicle was heading to Lakhudanda from Waling.