Rautahat, September 9:

Five persons died while five others were rescued after the Dhansar river swept away a microbus carrying 10 persons last night near the Dhansar bridge in Rautahat.

The microbus heading for Kathmandu from Dharan was carrying newly weds and their kin. Flash floods had swept away the bridge over the Dhansar river and the vehicles were crossing the river at the shallowest point near the bridge. The microbus was swept away as soon as it entered the river water behind a bus of Agni Travels.

The microbus occupants screamed for help when the current began sweeping the vehicle away. Bus passengers pulled bridegroom Raju Shrestha, bride Simla Shrestha, Raju’s mother Uma Shrestha, driver Anil Tamang and microbus owner Chet Bahadur Air to safety, but the other five microbus passengers could not be saved as the vehicle had already gone far out into the river.

Early morning, locals and area police personnel began a search and found bodies of the five persons some 10 to 13 km away from the incident site. Jeevan Joshi, Jayanti Joshi, Indrani Prasai, Narottam Rajbhandari and his wife Sami Rajbhandari of Kathmandu drowned.

The bodies would be handed over to relatives, said Rautahat DSP Yogeshwar Romkhani. DSP Romkhani said that Rs 13,000 in cash and gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 4 lakhs were recovered from the bags found on the spot. He added that Raju had identified all the five bodies.

The Chandranigahpur APO said the marriage took place on Friday and the newlyweds with their relatives were proceeding in the microbus to Kathmandu when floods swept the bus.