Rescue teams in Nepal have pulled a man and a woman out alive 10 days after catastrophic flooding tore through the region, offering a rare moment of hope as around 500 others remain stranded inside tunnels.
The trapped group is believed to be stuck in blocked passages linked to hydropower project sites, where floodwaters and debris sealed off access following last month’s disaster.
The deadly surge of ice, boulders, mud and wreckage struck along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday, with authorities blaming a glacier collapse for the unprecedented torrent. At least 1,300 people have been confirmed dead, while about 5,000 remain missing.
Officials said Saturday that a Chinese citizen had also been rescued from the tunnel network, raising the number of survivors brought out alive from the Trishuli hydropower project to three.
A day earlier, two Nepalese workers were rescued from a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant as emergency crews continued their painstaking search-and-rescue operation.
Nepal’s army said a joint rescue team of Nepalese military personnel and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a 225-metre tunnel (738ft) and that he was undergoing a health assessment.
Pictures show him being evacuated by helicopter, with an army medic checking on him during the flight.
A photo released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed two rescuers carrying the man out of the tunnel.
Pictures show rescuers carrying a Chinese national (centre) found in the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project
Pictures show him being evacuated by helicopter, with an army medic checking on him during the flight
In flood-hit Nuwakot town a woman was rescued alive from a house, Nepal’s army spokesperson said today
Nepali officials said that their focus was on reaching the hundreds of workers believed to be trapped inside about half a dozen hydropower project tunnels that had been blocked by mud and rock debris.
Pictures and videos shared by rescue teams showed earth-moving equipment digging and shovelling mud and rocks under lights in the dark of the night as workers watched.
Teams had used a pipe to begin ‘sending air through the small opening’, Nepali Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in flood-hit Nuwakot town a woman was rescued alive from a house, Nepal’s army spokesman said today.
Officials said she was being airlifted to Kathmandu.
Images released by Nepal’s army showed rescuers finding the woman covered in mud.
They gave her bottled water before pulling her to safety, wrapped in a grey blanket.
Yesterday, two hydropower workers were pulled alive from a tunnel buried by debris.
Images released by Nepal’s army showed rescuers finding the woman covered in mud, wrapped in a grey blanket
Dramatic photos showed about a dozen rescuers pulling a man from a small hole in the ground
Rescue crews are seen carrying one of the freed power plant workers to safety
Soldiers are pictured carrying a powerplant worker to safety on Friday morning
One man was helped to his feet by rescuers and later carried on the backs of the emergency workers.
A photograph showed the second man caked in mud, his hands pressed together in prayer, as rescuers brought him away on a stretcher.
Rescuers called it a ‘miracle’ after the disaster last Wednesday
‘I am so happy, my heart is lighter,’ Amir Maharjan, the brother of rescued worker 45-year-old Kabir Maharjan said.
The men were identified as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, as well as Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, by Home Minister Sudan Gurung.
The Nepal Army said the two men were receiving medical treatment and that ‘search and rescue operations are ongoing’.
Kulman Ghising, former head of many of the hydro projects who has just returned from the scene to help co-ordinate the rescue operation, told the Daily Mail last week:
‘It’s impossible to say how long the workers will be able to survive because we just don’t know the condition of the tunnels. From our estimates, there are 300 workers inside six to eight tunnels. If there’s enough oxygen and food, they could be OK for several weeks. But from what I’ve seen so far, that’s not the case.
Nepal army soldiers are pictured during a search and rescue operation outside a tunnel near the Hydropower Project sites on Wednesday
‘There was one tunnel that was reached, and it was totally filled with water and mud, so we weren’t able to tell if there were any workers inside. At another, after creating an opening, there was no response when we called out.’
Mr Ghising, who previously served as Nepal’s Energy Minister, said: ‘The whole area has been destroyed and many villages and hydropower projects have been wiped off the face of the earth. I only got back to Kathmandu yesterday and will be returning very soon.
‘We have to find our people as quickly as we can. This is a desperate race against time.’