Eleven people died when a jeep swerved off the road and plunged around 200 metres below at Lewa of Chhedagad Municipality in Jajarkot district on Monday. A passenger sustained critical injuries in the incident, police said.

According to Ratna Bahadur Khadka, the mayor of Chhedagad Municipality, nine people died on the spot while two died on the way to the hospital. The jeep was on its way to Thalaha in the municipality’s ward 5 from Jewa in ward 4.

The jeep reached Chhedagad-5 on Sunday carrying wedding attendants. The wedding attendants had got into a nasty scuffle with the locals of Chhedagad-5 and were on their way to the Wadaban Police Post to lodge a complaint when the accident happened, locals said.

According to the District Police Office in Jajarkot, eight of the deceased were residents of Jajarkot while three were from the neighbouring Dailekh.

Critically injured Dipak Adhikari of Chhedagad-5 was taken to Surkhet for treatment.

The security personnel from Wadaban and Manghat police posts and the local people reached the incident site and rescued the victims.

Preliminary police investigation shows that the jeep was carrying passengers beyond its capacity, police said, adding detailed investigation into the incident is underway.