At least five people died and 30 others were injured, some critically, in a bus accident at Mathar of Bulingtar Rural Municipality in Nawalparasi (East) on Sunday.

According to the Area Police Office in Dedhgaun, the bus was carrying devotees who were heading to Manakamana Temple in Gorkha district from Rambha Rural Municipality-1 in Palpa district. The vehicle swerved off the dirt road and plunged some 100 metres.

The villagers of Hungi settlement of Rambha-1 had reserved two buses and set off for Manakamana at around 9pm through Kaligandaki corridor on Saturday. One of the vehicles met with an accident when it reached Bulingtar.

Police identified the deceased as Tara BK, 41, Binaya BK, 17, Dhanisara BK, 62, Debi Gaha, 58, of Rambha-1 and Phulmaya Majhi, 45, of Galyang Municipality-9 in Syangja district. The bodies were taken to Rampur Hospital in Palpa for the postmortem. According to the police, there were 35 people on board when the accident occurred.

Though the incident happened at around 3am, the security personnel knew about the tragedy very late. A pedestrian informed the police of the accident around two hours after it happened.

The delay in rescue cost many lives.

“We knew of the accident only in the morning. The bus fell into a ravine and got stuck on the cliff. We could not rescue the victims due to geographical difficulty,” said Tanka Rana, a resident of Bulingtar. He said some critically injured people died as they could not be rescued timely.

The bus driver and his assistant also sustained injuries in the accident. The injured were rushed to Old Medical College in Chitwan for treatment.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Santosh Pathak said he suspects the incident happened as the driver dozed off while driving the vehicle.