Tuesday 5th July 2005

38 people died in a Badarmude, Nepal from a terrorist attack on a civilian commuter bus. The bus was travelling its usual route to the stop in the rural town of Badarmude 175 km south of Kathmandu with at least 120 passengers on board and on the roof at the time of the attack. As the bus crossed a small wooden bridge over a mountain stream, a member of a terrorist organisation detonated a small bomb from his position 250m away behind a tree. The bomb was not large enough to seriously damage the bus on its own, but did succeed in collapsing the fragile bridge into the stream below, taking the bus with it. Parts of the bus and its passengers littered the banks stream and remains of the bridge, and injured people requiring immediate medical assistance were scattered throughout the wreckage. The attack has not been claimed, but was almost certainly the work of the Communist Party of Nepal, fervent Maoists, who have been fighting the Nepal Civil War against the monarchy since 1996.