Rescuers in Nepal pulled two workers alive from a hydropower tunnel on Friday as emergency teams continued an operation to reach others believed to be trapped inside, officials said.
The two men were rescued from the Trishuli 3A tunnel nine days after floods, caused by a glacier collapse, devastated towns and swept away villages in Nepal on 26 August.
Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane posted about the second rescue on his Facebook page shortly after army spokesperson Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet confirmed the first trapped worker’s rescue.
The men were named as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor, by Home Minister Sudan Gurung.
Local television news channels showed images of the first rescued worker covered in mud and being carried from the site on a rescuer’s shoulder.
Officials said both men were in stable condition and were flown to a hospital in the capital Kathmandu.
At least 557 workers are missing from the Trishuli 3A hydropower project along the Trishuli River, with about 115 believed to be trapped in the main tunnel, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.
Officials present at the rescue site said rescuers believe some people may still be alive inside the tunnel.
Nepal’s Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina said officials remain hopeful that more workers will be rescued.
“We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people,” Timilsina wrote on his Facebook page.
About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in tunnels, according to local authorities.
Miracle country
Australian rescue expert Arnold Dix, who has advised on multiple tunnel-collapse rescues, has been supporting the operation remotely and is travelling to Nepal to support teams on the ground.
Earlier on Friday, Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said teams at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project believed they had heard a faint response from inside the tunnel.
He said rescuers had called into the tunnel: “Don’t worry, we are rescuing you.”
“They believe they received a faint response from inside saying, ‘hunchha’, yes or OK,” Dix told the AFP news agency, adding that he was en route to Nepal to join the rescue effort.
“Right now, I’m ‘glass three-quarters full’…After a week of 24/7 heartache, we might, just, be back in miracle country,” he said.
Dix said teams had dug through debris blocking the tunnel for 50 to 60 metres (164-196 feet) and had been hoping for a breakthrough at any moment.
Less than an hour later, rescuers pulled the two men to safety.
Rescue teams in Nepal have recovered more than 1,250 bodies, and more than 5,000 are missing, after the gigantic wave triggered by a rock and ice avalanche roared down the China-Nepal border.
China, as of late Wednesday, said 21 people were killed and 541 were missing on the Tibet side of the border.
Additional sources • AP, AFP