Police and army rescuers along with local villagers helped the victims. Two rescue helicopters sent from Kathmandu brought 13 injured people to a hospital.
The bus, which was on a local route and carrying all Nepali nationals, was unusually crowded because people in Nepal are heading to their village homes this week for the Hindu festival of Dashain, which begins Saturday. The two-week festival is the most important one in Nepal, a predominantly Hindu country.
It is illegal to travel on the roof of a bus in Nepal, but police do not monitor rural roads. Traffic accidents in the Himalayan country are blamed mainly on poorly maintained roads and vehicles.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)