Eight from Kerala die in Nepal due to possible gas leak at resort

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed “deep grief” over the incident.

January 21, 2020 03:52 pm | Updated 04:01 pm IST - Kathmandu

Hospital staff observe as the bodies of eight Indian tourists who died due to suspected suffocation are carried inside an ambulance while being taken for postmortem in Kathmandu on January 21, 2020.

Hospital staff observe as the bodies of eight Indian tourists who died due to suspected suffocation are carried inside an ambulance while being taken for postmortem in Kathmandu on January 21, 2020.

Tragedy struck a group of 15 tourists from Kerala in Nepal when eight of them, including four minors, died after they fell unconscious probably due to a gas leak from a heater in their room at a mountainous resort, police said, amidst cold wave in the Himalayan region.

The Indian nationals were airlifted to HAMS hospital in Kathmandu where they were pronounced dead on arrival, Superintendent of Police Sushil Singh Rathaur said.

Makwanpur police said the victims might have fallen unconscious due to asphyxiation.

“All eight were airlifted and brought to hospital in Kathmandu. A doctor from the Indian mission was also immediately sent to the concerned hospital to check on welfare of patients and to provide necessary assistance,” sources at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said.

“We have now been informed that all eight patients did not survive,” they added.

The victims were identified as Praveen Krishnan Nair, Saranya Sasi, Sreebhadra Praveen, Aarcha Praveen, Abhinav Saranya Nair, Ranjith Kumar Adatholath Punathil, Indu Lakshmi Peethambaran Ragalatha and Vyshnav Ranjith.

The deceased — two couples and four children — were part of a group of 15 people travelling from Kerala to Pokhara, a popular mountainous tourist destination.

They were on their way back home and stayed at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman in Makawanpur district on Monday night.

According to the manager at the resort, the guests stayed in a room and turned on a gas heater to keep themselves warm.

Although they had booked a total of four rooms, eight of them stayed in a room and remaining others in another room, the manager said, adding that all the windows and the door of the room were bolted from inside.

The Indian mission has assured all necessary assistance to the family members of the victims.

Kerala CM expresses ‘deep grief’

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has expressed deep grief at the death of eight Malayali tourists at a resort in Nepal.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday afternoon, he said that the officials of the Department of Non Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) have got in touch with the Indian embassy in Nepal to discuss steps to bring back their dead bodies to the state. After post-mortem, the bodies are expected to be brought here by Wednesday.

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