21 killed in Nepal college botany field trip bus crash
- The students and instructors from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute had been visiting a farm in a nearby district
A bus carrying college students and their instructors back from a botany field trip drove off a highway in a mountainous area on Friday, leaving 21 dead and 15 injured, police said.
The bus plunged down a mountainous slope and rolled about 500 metres (1,640 feet), according to officials.
The Nepalese students and instructors from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute had been visiting a farm in a nearby district.
Rescue operations were difficult at the crash site near Ramri village, about 400km (250 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, because the crash happened in a remote area and the wreckage was scattered.
The injured were taken to the nearest hospitals.
Vehicle crashes in mountainous Nepal are generally blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads.