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Updated: Sep 27, 2016 22:35 IST

Nineteen people died and more than a dozen were injured when an overcrowded bus went off a road in Dhading district of Nepal on Tuesday.

Police said 18 people were killed instantly and one passenger succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Kathmandu.

The bus plunged 300 feet after going off the road, district police chief Shrad Kumar Khatri said. Thirteen severely injured passengers were airlifted from the accident site to Kathmandu for treatment, chief district officer Bishow Subedi said.

The local administration said most of the passengers were survivors of the 2015 earthquake from a remote part of Dhading who were heading to the district headquarters to receive financial assistance announced by the government.

Police believe the accident could have occurred due to lack of maintenance of the road, which was damaged by recent rains.

A series of accidents in Nepal has raised questions about road safety. Officials said many accidents were caused by poor implementation of traffic rules and the poor condition of roads and vehicles. A majority of the accidents have occurred on roads running through hilly terrain.

First Published: Sep 27, 2016 18:08 IST</s>KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An overcrowded bus slipped off a mountain road in Nepal on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people, an official said.

The bus was carrying passengers both inside and on the roof, said Dhading District Administration official Toran Parajuli. He said that the road was covered in parts by mud from landslides, and that the bus driver appeared to be trying to negotiate around these areas when the crash happened.

The bus slipped off the road near Lapang Phedi village, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kathmandu, the capital, and rolled about 300 meters (980 feet) before stopping on the banks of the Ankhu River.

Parajuli said rescuers were at the crash site. At least nine people were injured, with a helicopter flown to the site from Kathmandu to try to fetch them.

The bus, which was on a local route and carrying all Nepali nationals, was unusually crowded because people in Nepal are heading to their village homes this week for the Hindu festival of Dashain, which begins Saturday. The two-week festival is the most important one in Nepal, a predominantly Hindu country.

It is illegal to travel on the roof of a bus in Nepal, but police do not monitor rural roads. Traffic accidents in the Himalayan country are blamed mainly on poorly maintained roads and vehicles.</s>A government official says a crowded bus slipped off a mountain in Nepal, leaving at least 14 people killed and nine more injured.

 Dhading district administration official Toran Parajuli said the bus was carrying passengers both inside and on the roof.

 It slipped off the mountain road near Lapang Phedi village and rolled about 300 meters (980 feet) before stopping on the banks of Ankhu River.

 Parajuli said rescuers have reached the accident site and a helicopter has flown from Kathmandu to try to fetch the injured.

 The bus was on a local route and carrying all Nepali nationals. Traffic crashes are mainly blamed on poorly maintained roads and vehicle in Nepal.
A bus skids off a mountain road in central Nepal, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than a dozen others.