Four Killed in Electric Vehicle Crash in Makwanpur

Four people have been killed and four others injured after a passenger electric vehicle plunged off a road in Makwanpur district in central Nepal.

The accident happened on Tuesday afternoon in Sukoura, in Indrasarovar Rural Municipality-2, while the vehicle was travelling from Kathmandu towards Birgunj.

Police identified the four people killed as 24-year-old Nar Bahadur Singh Thakuri of Kawasoti-1 in Nawalparasi East, 43-year-old Suraj Bhattarai of Dhanushadham-4 in Dhanusha, 44-year-old Bhuvaneshwar Sah Kanu of Chhipaharmai-2 in Parsa, and 32-year-old Sarfaros Miyan of Parwanipur-3 in Bara.

Their bodies were taken to Hetauda Hospital, police said.

The injured were identified as the driver, around 20-year-old Amir Ansari of Kalaiya-24, 23-year-old Kalpana Tamang of Hetauda-11, 23-year-old Raj Kumar Syangtan of Makawanpurgadhi-1, and 21-year-old Babia Kumari Yadav of Mahagadhimai-11 in Bara.

Ansari and Syangtan are in serious condition and are being treated at the Trauma Centre in Kathmandu. Yadav, who is receiving treatment at Hetauda Hospital, is in moderate condition. Tamang is also being treated in Kathmandu.

Yadav told police that she had been living in Kathmandu while preparing for a Public Service Commission examination and was travelling to Birgunj to sit for the test when the crash occurred.

She said she managed to escape through a window as the vehicle went off the road and overturned.

According to Yadav, the vehicle was travelling at high speed shortly before the crash. Police have not yet determined the exact cause and said an investigation is under way.

The electric vehicle, registered as Madhesh Province 03-001 J 0720, fell about 1,000 metres below the Hetauda-Bhimphedi-Kulekhani-Phakhel road section. Eight people, including the driver, were travelling in the vehicle at the time of the accident.