Simaltal bus plunge: Search for missing passengers continues on 12th day

Search for the two missing buses and their passengers continues on the 12th day of the incident in which landslide on the Narayangadh-Muglin road section at Simaltal of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-29 swept away two passenger buses into the Trishuli river.

The search is centred at the accident site at Simaltal and stretches up to Kerabari via Ghumaune with the spotting of an article that probably from the wreckage of the missing buses.

Nepali security personnel, together with a technical team of 12 persons from India’s National Disaster Response Force, are carrying out the search.

Chief District Officer Indradev Yadav said that search is again carried out in the area this morning after radar indicated a suspected article.

Out of the 25 dead bodies found before this, one of the seven unidentified bodies is said to be that of a person who is not linked to this incident, CDO Yadav said. According to him, the number of bodies found has come down to 24 after a body was identified to be that of a woman from Palpa who jumped into the river.

The Chitwan District Security Committee and the Indian technical team held a joint meeting on Saturday and the team began the search since Sunday morning.

The joint search team that begun its search with the help of sonar camera has explored the area from Simaltal to Kabhreghat including Ghumaune, Devghat area.

Among the identified bodies, 16 are those of males and two are of females. Similarly, among them, 13 bodies are of Nepali citizens while five are of Indian citizens.