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Itongadol.- At least eight people have been killed and some two dozen more injured, several critically, in a bus accident in Nepal on Friday. One of the casualties is an Israeli woman, according to reports.
Four Israelis are said to have purchased tickets for that bus, Foreign Ministry sources said citing the tour company. However, it was unclear whether they boarded the bus and the ministry said it was trying to verify that with the Israeli Embassy in Nepal.
Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz of the Chabad mission to Kathmandu on Friday flew to the scene of the accident.
Lifshitz told Channel 2 news that between four and seven Israelis were on the bus, and that at least two other Israelis were taken to local hospitals for treatment. He said their names have been given to the Israeli ambassador in Nepal.
According to local television reports, the bus carrying 60 passengers reportedly fell 150 meters off a cliff after coming off a narrow road in Belkot, in the Nuwakot district, about 75 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu.
Other news reports said the death toll could rise as some of the injured were in serious condition.
The bus accident comes just a day after Michal Cherkesky, one of the Israelis killed in a deadly blizzard in Nepal, was buried.
She was among 39 people, including three Israelis and trekkers from Canada, India, Slovakia, Poland and Japan, who died in blizzards and avalanches that swept the Himalayas last week.