An overcrowded passenger bus heading toward Nepals capital veered off a key highway early Saturday, killing at least 19 people, police said. The bus plunged into the Trishuli River, which is known for fast currents, said district police chief Dhruba Raj Raut. "We have recovered the bodies of 19 people from the place of the accident and number of missing is still unknown as the bus had no record of the total number of passengers," he told Agence France Presse. The bodies were pulled out from the site about 80 kilometers east of the capital, Kathmandu. It wasnt clear how many people were aboard the bus. Only a small section of the wreckage was visible. Local TV footage showed rescue workers pulling the dead and injured from the water, while soldiers in boats scoured the river for the missing. At least 16 injured passengers were recovered from the river and taken to local hospitals, police said. Authorities are yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but local media quoted passengers saying that the driver may have been drunk. Police Inspector Barun Bahadur Singh, at the scene of the accident, told AFP that the driver was injured in the accident and is thought to have fled. Road accidents in the Himalayan nation, which is mostly covered with mountains, are generally blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and road conditions.