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Updated: Sep 27, 2016 22:35 IST

Nineteen people died and more than a dozen were injured when an overcrowded bus went off a road in Dhading district of Nepal on Tuesday.

Police said 18 people were killed instantly and one passenger succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Kathmandu.

The bus plunged 300 feet after going off the road, district police chief Shrad Kumar Khatri said. Thirteen severely injured passengers were airlifted from the accident site to Kathmandu for treatment, chief district officer Bishow Subedi said.

The local administration said most of the passengers were survivors of the 2015 earthquake from a remote part of Dhading who were heading to the district headquarters to receive financial assistance announced by the government.

Police believe the accident could have occurred due to lack of maintenance of the road, which was damaged by recent rains.

A series of accidents in Nepal has raised questions about road safety. Officials said many accidents were caused by poor implementation of traffic rules and the poor condition of roads and vehicles. A majority of the accidents have occurred on roads running through hilly terrain.