A bus carrying Indian tourists crashed into a rain-swollen river in neighboring Nepal on Friday, killing 27 people and injuring 16.

Shailendra Thapa, a spokesman for the Himalayan country’s armed police, said all 41 passengers and two crew members were Indians.

They were travelling from the tourist city of Pokhara to the capital Kathmandu when the accident happened, he added.

According to Mr Thapa, rescuers have pulled 27 bodies from the wreckage and flown the 16 injured to the capital Kathmandu for treatment.

Police and army teams climbed down long metal ladders to reach the river, using ropes to pull out the wounded and dead.

Exhausted women and children lay among the rubble strewn on the banks of the fast-flowing river, as rescuers pulled a nearly fainting child from the danger zone.

The bus left the Prithvi Highway and headed towards a fast-flowing river.

The roof split open before it came to rest on the rocky bank, just before the raging, murky waters of the Marsyangdi.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said the bus fell about 150 metres off the highway and that they were carrying out relief and rescue operations along with local authorities.

Police and military rescue workers helped pull people from the wreckage near Abukhaireni, a town about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.

India’s neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, where the passengers boarded the bus, is sending an official to coordinate rescue efforts, news agency ANI reported.

In July, two buses were swept away by landslides not far from the site of Friday’s accident.

Of the 65 people on board the two buses, only three survived and only half of the bodies were recovered.

The wreckage of the buses has not yet been found, but authorities continue to search.

Bus accidents in Nepal are usually caused by poorly maintained roads and vehicles. In addition, much of the country consists of mountains with narrow roads.

AP