Authorities in Nepal briefly suspended their search for at least sixty-three persons missing on Friday night following the removal of two buses from a roadway and their fall into a river by a landslide caused by intense monsoon rains.
Before dusk pushed them to give up, scores of rescuers had been searching a desolate stretch of road in Chitwan’s central area for survivors.
According to Nepal’s Armed Police Force spokesman Kumar Neupane, “it is not possible to continue the operation today because it is getting dark now.”
“The search will resume tomorrow morning.”
The buses were carrying at least 66 people between them, according to district official Khimananda Bhusal, who spoke with AFP.
“We are not sure of the total number because the buses could have picked up others on the road,” he stated. “The river has swollen and no one else has been found yet.”
According to Bhusal, one of the survivors had been released from the hospital and the others were no longer in danger.
One man, speaking to AFP from his hospital bed, said that when one of the buses sank, his two children and two grandchildren were on board.
