NEPALESE emergency response teams intensified search and rescue operations on Saturday after two hydropower workers were found alive in a tunnel nine days after being trapped by the devastating floods and landslides near the China-Nepal border.
The pair were rescued from the Trishuli 3A hydropower project on Sept 4, in what rescuers described as a “miracle”, after a tsunami-like wall of water and mud swept through the area following a massive glacial and rock collapse on Aug 26.
The discovery has renewed hopes that more survivors could be found as rescuers continue digging through vast piles of debris at multiple sites.
Nepal’s disaster agency said 1,294 bodies had been recovered, while 5,053 people remained missing.
In China, state media reported 31 deaths and 531 people missing, bringing the combined death toll from the disaster to 1,325, with 5,584 people still unaccounted for.
“We have been working since morning on search and rescue operations,” Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
Search operations continued at the Trishuli 3A tunnel where the two men were rescued, as well as at other hydropower sites, with at least 12 projects destroyed by the floods.
“Work is also underway at the tunnels,” Basnet said. “We don’t have an update yet, but the work goes on.”
The government had initially estimated that more than 100 hydropower workers could still be alive inside several blocked tunnels.
The two rescued men were pulled from the tunnel covered in mud after surviving for nine days. They were taken to hospital and were reported to be in stable condition.
Experts from India, China, Australia and South Korea have joined Nepalese rescuers in efforts to locate survivors trapped inside blocked tunnels.
With morgues overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, Nepal Police said about 1,030 bodies had been buried in mass graves after DNA samples were collected to assist future identification by relatives.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah also pledged to provide “safe and comfortable accommodation” for thousands of people displaced by the disaster who are currently living in temporary relief camps.
“We know that staying there (camps) is not easy for you,” he said in an emotional social media post late on Sept 4.
“(But) we will once again create an environment where you can dream about and build your future.”- September 5, 2026
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