Two rescues rekindle hopes for tunnel workers alive

Rescuers in Nepal pulled out a Chinese man and a woman in separate operations Saturday, 10 days after devastating floods hit the country, as teams continued searching for thousands of missing people.

The man was rescued from a hydropower tunnel, according to a social media post by the country’s prime minister’s office, bringing the total to three workers pulled alive from the Trishuli hydropower project. Two Nepalese workers were rescued on Friday.

Nepal’s army said a joint rescue team of Nepalese military personnel and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a 225-meter (about 740-foot) tunnel and that he was undergoing a health assessment. 

Rescue efforts have increasingly focused on 12 hydropower projects across Nepal, where about 900 workers are missing and roughly 500 are believed to be trapped in various tunnels, authorities said. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have been searching through debris, damaged structures and tunnels at the projects, hoping to find survivors.

A picture of the rescue published on the army's Facebook page showed the man, identified only as Luhaitao, with his arms around the shoulders of two camouflage-clad rescuers.

The man was among hundreds of hydropower workers who went missing after a tsunami-like wall of water and mud swept through the China-Nepal border following a vast glacial and rock collapse on 26 August.

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Authorities later in the day said members of Nepal's Armed Police Force pulled alive Chandrika Shrestha, 64, from her buried home in Nuwakot district.

"A police team found her as they were clearing the area. She has been airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment," police deputy superintendent Iqbal Hawari said.

On Friday, two Nepali hydropower workers were rescued at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where searches continued alongside multiple other sites, with at least 12 hydropower projects destroyed by the floods.

Both men were reported to be in stable condition in a Kathmandu hospital.

So far, 1,344 bodies have been recovered in Nepal, according to the national disaster agency, with around 5,000 people missing.

In China, state media said 31 people had been killed and 531 were missing.

That takes the overall death toll to 1,375 people, and more than 5,500 missing.

The government initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.

Experts from India, China, Australia and South Korea have been aiding Nepali rescuers in their search of survivors inside the blocked tunnels.

Rescuers have also been relying on drones to deliver medicine, food and other supplies, as well as transporting bodies, in high-altitude areas hard to reach by roads.