Hospital staff observe as the bodies of eight Indian tourists who died due to suspected suffocation are carried inside an ambulance while being taken for postmortem in Kathmandu, Nepal January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
Hospital staff observe as the bodies of eight Indian tourists who died due to suspected suffocation are carried inside an ambulance while being taken for postmortem in Kathmandu, Nepal January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
KATHMANDU, January 21 (Reuters) - Eight Indian tourists including four children died of suspected suffocation in a hotel in Nepal on Tuesday, police said, after trying to keep warm by using a gas heater during the night.
The victims were staying in Daman, a hill resort south of Kathmandu which is known for its panoramic views of the Himalayas.
"They had lit a gas heater to keep the room warm and probably suffocated," police official Hobindra Bogati told Reuters. Seven other tourists in the group were unharmed.
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.
