Twelve persons were killed and 19 injured when a passenger bus they were travelling on met with an accident at Dhading district at around 4 am Tuesday morning.

The accident occurred when the bus (Lu Kha 7051) heading to Kathmandu from Butwal veered off the road and fell 150 meters down the cliff at Bhumesthan of Simle along the Prithivi Highway.

Ten people– two women and eight men - died on spot while two injured male died while being rushed to hospital in Kathmandu.

Ten among the deceased have been identified - Balaram Chaudhary, 23 of Kopawa, Kapilvastu , Mohan Nagarkoti, 22, of Rudrapur, Rupandehi, Parbati Gharti, 55 of Tamghas, Gulmi, Phadindra Subedi, 29 of Manapakadi, Rupandehi, Sushil Gharti, 25 and Sher Bahadur Thapa of Butwal, Ranjan Thapa, an under-14 football player of Pokhara, Keshav Saru of Arghakhanchi, Awadh Kishor Chaudhary of Kapilvastu and Ramlin Chaudhary of Rupandehi.

The injured are being treated at various hospitals in Kathmandu and Lalitpur.

Police suspect that the driver might have dozed off while driving, leading to excessive speed of the bus which made it uncontrollable.

A team of Nepal Army and police personnel aided by locals had carried out the rescue operation. nepalnews.com