KATHMANDU (AFP) - At least 24 people were killed when an overcrowded bus skidded off the road and crashed in remote western Nepal on Thursday (March 9), local officials said.

Sixteen people were killed instantly as the bus careered off the road in Jajarkot district, while the other eight died in hospital, local district official Suman Kharel told AFP.

The nearest hospital was struggling to cope with the number of casualties and some people were being taken to other districts for treatment, he added.

"The district hospital is crowded with injured and we are still searching for people at the accident site," another local official Krishna Chandra Paudel said.

The officials said that there were around 50 passengers on the bus, blaming the accident on overcrowding.

The bus was also in a poor state of repair, Paudel added.

The bus which was travelling down a narrow and windy road from the village of Khalanga in Jajarkot district to Khara in Rukun.

Deadly crashes are relatively common in the impoverished Himalayan nation because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.