New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 21 (IANS): Eight tourists from Kerala have been found dead in a hotel in Nepal, Union Minister for State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media, Muraleedharan said the tourists comprising two families of Thiruvananthapuram were reported dead in Daman in Nepal's Makwanpur district.

"The families of Renjith and Praveen have been reported dead. What has been informed is they died due to suffocation. Their bodies have now been brought to Kathmandu and will be taken to Thiruvananthapuram," said the minister.

Superintendent of Police, Makawanpur District Police Office, Sushil Singh Rathaur confirmed that the Indian nationals were pronounced dead on arrival at HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, the Himalayan Times reported.

The eight Indian nationals, two couples and four children, were part of a group of 15 people who had travelled to Pokhara from Kerala, and were returning home. Police said on the way back they had stopped at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman.

According to the resort manager, the guests who arrived at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday from Pokhara were staying in a room and turned on a gas heater to keep warm. Although the group had booked a total of four rooms, eight of them stayed in a single room while the remaining in the other rooms, the manager said. He said all windows and the room door were bolted.

Police were informed of their unconscious state after other members of the group went to check on them this morning, the manager said.

Subsequently, a helicopter airlifted the eight tourists to hospital in Kathmandu where they were declared dead.