Nepal bus crash leaves 19 dead

The death toll from a bus crash on a mountain road in southern Nepal has risen to 19 after two passengers succumbed to their injuries, police say.

The passenger bus veered off a road and plunged into a gorge in Narapani village of Arghakhanchi district on Wednesday.

The bus was heading to Butwal, the main city of the region, from Sandhikharka, the district headquarters.

The driver lost control of his vehicle in a hairpin turn of the narrow mountain road, police say.

The crash site is about 230km southwest of Kathmandu.

The wreckage was scattered along the slope below the road and the police search and rescue team struggled to retrieve the bodies, Nepal's Kantipur newspaper reported on Thursday.

Road accidents are fairly common in mountainous Nepal, which in recent years has seen a push to build roads connecting remote regions to towns and cities across the country.