Rescuers in Nepal successfully extracted a man and a woman in separate operations on Saturday, a full 10 days after severe floods wreaked havoc in the country. The man was rescued from a hydropower tunnel, as confirmed by a social media post from the prime minister’s office. This rescue marked the third successful retrieval of workers from the Trishuli hydropower project, with two Nepalese workers having been saved the day before.
Nepal’s army, in collaboration with South Korean disaster experts, managed to rescue the man from a 225-meter tunnel. Following the rescue, the man underwent a thorough health assessment. Images captured the moment he was airlifted by helicopter, with an army medic attending to him during the flight. A photo released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV depicted two rescuers carrying the man out of the tunnel.
In an audio shared by CCTV, the man expressed his disbelief at being rescued, recounting how he repeatedly called out when he spotted the lights of the rescue teams, only to go unheard. He was later transported to a hospital and reported to be in stable condition.
Rescue operations have intensified around 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, where an estimated 900 workers are missing and approximately 500 are believed to be trapped in various tunnels. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States have been deployed to search through debris, damaged structures, and tunnels in the hopes of finding additional survivors.
In the flood-affected town of Nuwakot, a woman was rescued from a house and airlifted to Kathmandu for medical treatment, as confirmed by Nepal’s army spokesperson. Pictures released by the army showed rescuers locating the woman covered in mud inside the damaged house, providing her with water before bringing her to safety. The devastating floods on August 26 claimed at least 1,300 lives and left over 5,000 individuals missing, with suspicions pointing to a glacier collapse as the likely cause.