British man among 19 killed as Nepal bus plunges 200 metres

Nepalese police said a passenger bus carrying 44 people plunged roughly 200 metres down a mountainside and onto the banks of the Trishuli River in Dhading district, killing 19 people and injuring 25. The vehicle had been travelling from the tourist city of Pokhara toward Kathmandu when it left the Prithvi Highway in the early hours, officials said.

Police spokesman Abinarayan Kafle provided the immediate casualty breakdown: "17 people died at the scene, with two more dying while receiving treatment," he said. Nepalese authorities reported that nine of the dead had been formally identified at the time of reporting. Photographs from the scene showed the bus lying on its side on the riverbed, its wheels angled upward, as rescuers worked around the wreckage.

Among the fatalities was a 24-year-old British man. The UK Foreign Office said, "We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Nepal and are in contact with the local authorities." The Chinese embassy in Kathmandu told local officials that one of its citizens may be among those killed, though Nepalese authorities had not independently confirmed that account.

Rescue efforts reached the remote site soon after the crash, government official Mohan Prasad Neupane said. Most of the injured were transferred to hospitals in Kathmandu for treatment. Reporters and officials identified among the wounded at least one Chinese national and a 27-year-old New Zealand woman; officials said all injured were receiving care in the capital.

Local place names around the wreck have appeared in multiple transliterations; the crash site is variously reported as Benighat or Behighat, about 80 kilometres west of Kathmandu along the Trishuli River corridor. Eyewitness descriptions and on-the-ground reporting indicate the bus fell the equivalent of approximately 650 feet from the roadway to the riverbank.

Authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the accident. Nepali officials did not immediately say whether weather, road conditions, mechanical failure or driver error played a role. The bus was described in reports as carrying tourists, a reminder that intercity coaches on popular routes such as Pokhara-Kathmandu regularly transport international visitors as well as Nepali travellers.

Road safety is a perennial issue in Nepal, where narrow mountain roads, steep drops and uneven maintenance contribute to frequent, often deadly crashes. Officials and safety advocates note that hundreds of people die in road accidents in Nepal each year; recent years have seen several high-profile collisions and falls in the central hill districts, including a 2024 crash in the Marsyangdi River area that claimed more than a dozen lives.

Police and district authorities said they would release further details as identifications are completed and hospital reports are updated. For families and travellers, the incident underscores persistent safety gaps on the country’s busiest tourist and trade routes and the diplomatic sensitivities that arise when foreign nationals are among the casualties.