KATHMANDU: Two hydropower workers have been rescued alive from a tunnel buried by debris in Nepal, providing a rare ray of hope on the 10th day of rescue operations following catastrophic flooding in the Himalayan region.
Rescuers cheered as one of the men was pulled through a muddy opening, according to video released by Nepal’s Energy Ministry.
He was helped to his feet before being carried by emergency workers towards a helicopter. A photograph showed the second man covered in mud, his hands pressed together in prayer, as rescuers carried him on a stretcher.
“As long as there is breath, there is hope!” Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said in a statement.
“Rescue operations are continuing in all the affected tunnels. Let everyone’s efforts and prayers continue. We have not lost hope.”
Rescuers described the breakthrough as a “miracle” after the 26 August glacial and mountain collapse near the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,280 people and left more than 5,500 missing.
“I am so happy, my heart is lighter,” Amir Maharjan, the brother of rescued worker Kabir Maharjan, told AFP.
Home Minister Sudan Gurung identified the two men as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, and Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor. Both are Nepali nationals.
The prime minister’s office said Shah was in a “stable condition”, while Maharjan was receiving intensive care.
24/7 Heartache
Lakshmi Naini, who said Maharjan was her brother-in-law, waited outside a hospital in Kathmandu after he was flown there by helicopter.
“It’s a miracle! I am very happy,” she told AFP. “I heard he is alive through social media, and I could not believe it.”
“I have no words to express how I feel,” said another relative, Shyam Maharjan, 45.
The two men were among hundreds of hydropower workers reported missing after a wall of mud and debris swept through the region on 26 August following a massive glacial and rock collapse on a mountain near the China-Nepal border.
Search operations were continuing at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where the men were rescued, as well as at several other sites.
At least 12 hydropower projects were damaged or destroyed by the floods.
The government had initially said it believed more than 100 workers could still be alive inside several tunnels.
Nepali rescuers, supported by experts from India, China and South Korea, have continued searching for workers feared trapped underground. Rescue teams had repeatedly encountered densely packed debris blocking access.
Until Friday, none of the missing tunnel workers had been confirmed alive.
Australian rescue expert Arnold Dix, who had been supporting the operation remotely, described the breakthrough as a return to “miracle country” after what he called a “week of 24/7 heartache”.
Earlier on Friday, Dix said rescue teams at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project believed they had heard a faint response from inside the tunnel.
“They believe they received a faint response from inside saying, ‘hunchha’, yes or OK,” Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, told AFP.
He said rescuers had called into the tunnel: “Don’t worry, we are rescuing you.”
Dix was a key adviser during the 2023 Himalayan rescue operation that successfully freed all 41 Indian workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel under construction.
He said teams had dug through between 50 and 60 metres of debris blocking the tunnel and were hoping for a breakthrough.
Less than an hour later, rescuers pulled the two men to safety.
Himalayan Tsunami
The rescue came as some Nepali families searching for missing relatives began holding symbolic funerals, reflecting growing fears that survivors would not be found.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has described the enormous wave triggered by the rock and ice avalanche as a “Himalayan tsunami”.
Floodwaters tore through mountain districts on 26 August, destroying roads, bridges and several hydropower dams.
AFP reporters flying by helicopter over the affected valley on Thursday saw entire sections of settlements swept away, with the landscape resembling a puzzle with pieces missing.
Villages surrounded by green paddy fields and homes stood beside vast areas of land washed away by the floods.
Communities close to the disaster’s epicentre remain cut off.
The United Nations has warned that the “magnitude of the destruction” is making the delivery of aid extremely difficult, with cargo drones and porters being considered to reach isolated communities.
“Access has been very, very, very difficult,” UN chief in Nepal Lila Pieters Yahia said.
Nepal’s disaster authority said 1,259 bodies had been recovered, while 5,083 people remained missing. In China, state media reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing.
Together, the figures put the overall toll at 1,280 deaths and 5,624 missing.
More than 800 foreign nationals from at least 34 countries are among those missing in Nepal and China, including tourists and pilgrims.
