A Brit is among 19 people killed after a passenger bus fell 650 feet from a hilly road into a ravine in west Nepal before dawn on Monday.

Only nine of the dead have been identified so far, the police said, adding that the bus was carrying 44 people in all.

A New Zealander and a Chinese national were among the 25 injured when the bus, headed to the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, from the town of Pokhara, fell 650 feet from the road at Behighat in Dhading district, 50 miles west of Kathmandu.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier that one other Chinese national was missing. 

‘Out of 44, in total 19 people died, and 25 are undergoing treatment,’ senior local police officer Prakash Dahal said, confirming one British citizen was among the dead. 

Mohan Prasad Neupane, information officer at the district administration office, said the rescue operation had been completed by dawn.

‘The injured are undergoing treatment,’ Neupane said.

Authorities are now investigating the cause of the accident. 

A Brit is among 19 people killed after a passenger bus fell 650 feet from a hilly road in west Nepal

Hundreds die in road crashes in Nepal annually

Road accidents are common in mostly mountainous Nepal where the conditions of roads are poor. 

Hundreds die in road crashes in Nepal annually.

Earlier this month, a bus carrying a wedding party fell off a slope of a mountain road in west Nepal in a devastating crash that killed at least 13 people while 34 more were injured.

And in August 2024, 14 people were killed after a bus carrying dozens of worshippers tumbled 500 feet into a ravine in the Marsyangdi river.

Sixteen others were injured and the top part of the bus, which was carrying at least 40 Indian pilgrims, was ripped open in the crash.

Road accidents are common in mostly mountainous Nepal where the conditions of roads are poor 

The bus was travelling from the tourist city of Pokhara to the capital Kathmandu when the accident occurred in the central district of Tanahun.

There were 43 people on the bus and all of them were Indian nationals, according to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

A military helicopter was deployed to help transport the rescued passengers as the police and army helped pull people from the wreckage.

A month before, two buses with 59 passengers on board were swept into a river by a landslide in the nearby district of Chitwan.