Kathmandu: Eight tourists from Kerala, including four children, died on Tuesday due to a possible gas leak in their room at a resort in Daman in Makwanpur district of Nepal.
According to sources, they were part of a 17-member tourist group. They had checked into Everest Panorama resort at Daman, a popular tourist destination in the Himalayan country.
According to India's Ministry of External Affairs, the deceased have been identified as Praveen Krishnan Nair (39), his wife Saranya Sasi (34), daughters Sreebadra Praveen (9), Archa Praveen, and son Abhinav Saranya Nair (9); Ranjith Kumar T B (39), his wife Indu Lakshmi Peethambaran (34) and son Vaishnav Ranjith (2). His another son Madhav escaped unhurt in the incident.
"They were using gas heater in the room; they would have suffocated," said Superintendent of Police Sushil Singh Rathore of District Police Office, Makwanpur.
Rescue helicopters flew the tourists to Kathmandu's Hospital for Advanced Medicine and Surgery, where they were declared dead.
A doctor at the Hospital for Advanced Medicine and Surgery in Kathmandu, Kamal Thapa, said the four adults and four children showed no signs of life when they arrived at the hospital.
According to The Himalayan Times, the group — travelling to Pokhara from Kerala — were returning home. On the way, they had stopped at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman Monday night.
According to the manager at the resort, the guests 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 others in another, the manager said, adding that all the windows and the door of the room were bolted from inside.
They were found unconscious in the suite by the hostel staff, but had died by the time they were shifted to hospital, reports say.
The room had poor ventilation as all the windows were shut in the winter night.
Family trip
Four men of the 17-member group were former BTech students at the Pappanamcode Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering.
Praveen was working as an engineer in Dubai, while Saranya studying Pharmacy at the Amrutha Institute of Medical Sciences at Kochi.
Praveen's mother is still unaware of her son's demise. “His mother is ailing and she won't be able to take the shock. That is why we did not inform her,” said his neighbours.
Ranjith Kumar's father was also not informed about the death as he recenlty suffered a heart attack.
Nepal witnesses cold wave condition between December and January. Daman is a famous hill station situated 70km south of Kathmandu, where people visit for magnificent mountain view.
