Kathmandu, April 22: A minimum of seventeen Indian pilgrims were killed and over twenty were injured  on Wednesday once their bus veered off the main road and plunged into a river in Nepal, police said.

“Those killed were Indian nationals and most of them were from Gorakhpur,” police officer Basu Kharel, who was concerned within the rescue operation, told Xinhua.

The accident happened at 6.40 a.m. once the bus carrying dozens of Indian pilgrims skidded off the Prithvi main road, rolled down 150 metres and fell into Jhyapre river in Dhading district, some fifty km west of Kathmandu.

Kharel said different groups are operating for the rescue operation, that is still below manner.

We are trying to establish the names and addresses of the accident victims, another police official said.

According to the police, all the Indian nationals were returning home once paying homage at the Pashupatinath temple.