Two workers have been rescued alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, nine days after catastrophic flooding buried the site and left hundreds of people missing.
The men were brought out of the Trishuli 3A project in Rasuwa on Friday, 4 September, after rescuers heard voices beneath the mud and debris blocking the underground passage.
They were identified as 30-year-old mechanical foreman Sanjay Shah and 45-year-old mechanical supervisor Kabir Maharjan. Both were said to be in a stable condition and were flown to a hospital in Kathmandu.
Footage showed one survivor being carried from the tunnel covered in mud, while the second was taken away on a stretcher with his hands pressed together in prayer.
Rescuers had been clearing the passage by hand and drilling openings to send air inside. The team later gained access through a cable tunnel leading towards the buried section, raising hopes that others could still be found alive.
Nepal’s army spokesperson, Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet, said one of the rescued workers had indicated that more people might remain inside. Officials at the site also said they believed there could be further survivors.
At least 557 workers are missing from the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, according to the Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal, with about 115 believed to be trapped in the main tunnel.
The two men are among hundreds of workers unaccounted for after floods and mudslides swept through the region on 26 August. The disaster, believed to have been triggered by a glacier or rock-and-ice collapse, devastated communities along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems.
Nepal’s Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina said the government remained hopeful that more workers would be recovered. “We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people,” he wrote in a statement.
Amir Maharjan, the rescued worker Kabir Maharjan’s brother, said the family was travelling to the hospital. “I can’t explain what we are feeling at the moment. We are just grateful to God,” he said.
The wider rescue effort has involved Nepali security forces alongside teams and specialists from India, China and other countries. About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects, with roughly 500 thought to be trapped underground.
Nepal’s disaster management agency says at least 1,259 people have been killed in the floods and more than 5,000 remain missing. On the Chinese side of the border, authorities have reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing.
