Indian tourists die after falling unconscious at Nepal resort

Eight tourists died of suspected suffocation in a hotel near Kathmandu after trying to keep warm by using a gas heater.

Nepal: India tourists die
The eight were part of a group of 15 tourists who had travelled to Nepal from the southern Indian state of Kerala [Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]

Eight Indian tourists, including four children, have been found dead in their room at a hill resort in Nepal on Tuesday, police said.

The eight – two couples and their four children – had slept in one room at a hotel in Daman, a popular tourist destination in Makwanpur district about 55 kilometres (34 miles) from Kathmandu known for its panoramic views of the Himalayas.

“They were found unconscious this morning and airlifted to Kathmandu but died during treatment,” police spokesman Shailesh Thapa Chettri told AFP news agency.

“We suspect they died of suffocation, but autopsy reports will confirm the cause,” Chettri added.

The families used a gas heater in their room to keep warm, a district official told AFP. They were part of a group of 15 who had travelled to Nepal from the southern Indian state of Kerala.

A doctor at the Hospital for Advanced Medicine and Surgery in Kathmandu, Kamal Thapa, said the eight people showed no signs of life when they arrived at the hospital.

Tourism is a major source of revenue for Nepal’s economy, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Last year just over 1 million tourists visited the country, of which the biggest contingent – around a tenth – came from India.

Source: News Agencies