Two workers have been rescued alive from a flooded hydropower tunnel in Nepal, days after a catastrophic flash flood struck the Nepal-Tibet border region. Nepal's Army confirmed the rescues Friday, posting videos and images from the Trishuli 3A construction site on Facebook.
The two workers were identified as Sanjay Sah and Kabir Maharjan. Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane, an engineer involved in the search operations, posted about the rescues on his own Facebook page and shared photos and video from the scene. Before the rescues were confirmed, he had reported that rescuers had heard voices from inside the tunnel.
"It has been confirmed that more than one person's voice has been heard from inside," Neupane wrote. "When the rescue team said, 'Don't panic, we are rescuing,' a response of 'yes' was received from inside."
Sah, a mechanical foreman, described what happened in a video published by the Nepali Army. He said he was in the control room when the disaster struck and immediately tried to warn others.
"I told everyone that there was a big accident on the big dam, and asked everyone to run and in the end, I ran out of time and could not run out," Sah said in the video, which was translated from Nepali.
Sah estimated there were three or four more people still trapped nearby, and possibly more, since the tunnel is long and some workers may have been swept deeper inside. He said he passed the time trapped underground by chanting mantras.
According to ABC News, at least 557 workers are missing from the Trishuli 3A hydropower projects along the Trishuli River, with roughly 115 believed to be trapped in the tunnel, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.
Nepal's Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina said officials remain hopeful. "We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people," he wrote on Facebook.
The death toll from last week's flood has climbed to 1,287, with an additional 4,216 people believed to still be missing as of Thursday, according to Nepal's National Disaster Management Authority. Those numbers rose from 1,114 deaths and 3,916 missing people just one day earlier. Chinese state media reported an additional 16 deaths and 546 missing in Tibet, bringing the combined death toll to 1,268 and the total missing on both sides of the border to 4,762.
Relief efforts are ongoing. Almost all communication towers have been restored, and nearly 12,000 people have been rescued through international and domestic aid. More than 21,500 security personnel have been mobilized, and over 5,000 people are receiving treatment for injuries.
