Kolkata, Aug. 29 -- A bus driver's split-second decision to turn back may have saved the lives of a retired West Bengal schoolteacher and his wife, who were on their way to Tibet when flash floods struck Nepal's Kerung border.

Anukul Poddar and his wife, Reba, were about an hour from the immigration centre when the driver stopped on Wednesday around 9:30 am, warning that a flash flood had hit and refusing to go ahead. Minutes after they were diverted to Kathmandu, the stretch where their bus had stopped was washed away.

"All we could see was a cloud coming down the gorge below and a hissing sound. We didn't have any idea of the devastation it had caused at the immigration centre in Kerung. The bus driver didn't waste time and took anoth...