A get-together during the festive season in Nepal turned to stark tragedy early Wednesday when 23 Christians, including an Indian, were crushed to death in a church instituted by an Indian convert in eastern Nepal.

Most of the victims were women who died when a three-storey bamboo structure, built to accommodate Protestant Christians of the El Shaddai sect in Dharan town in eastern Nepal's Sunsari district, gave way around 12:30 am.