Two hydropower workers have been rescued alive from a debris-filled tunnel in Nepal, offering a rare breakthrough on the 10th day of a desperate search following catastrophic flooding in the Himalayas.
Rescuers erupted in cheers as one of the men was brought through a muddy opening, footage released by Nepal’s energy ministry showed.
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Emergency workers helped him stand before carrying him on their backs toward a helicopter. He raised one hand as they made their way across the site.
A photograph showed the second worker covered in mud, his hands clasped in prayer, as rescuers carried him away on a stretcher.
Moment rescuers pull workers free
“I am so happy, my heart is lighter,” Amir Maharjan, the brother of rescued worker 45-year-old Kabir Maharjan, said.
Home Minister Sudan Gurung identified the men as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, and Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor.
The Nepal Army said both workers were receiving medical treatment, adding that “search and rescue operations are ongoing.”
They were among hundreds of hydropower workers who disappeared after a wall of mud and debris tore through the region on 26 August, following a huge glacial and rock collapse on a mountain along the China-Nepal border.
Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha confirmed that the rescue took place at the Trishuli 3A tunnel.
Search teams were still working at the tunnel and other locations after the floods destroyed at least 12 hydropower projects.
Local residents look at a damaged tunnel of the Trishuli Hydropower Plant
Officials had initially said they believed more than 100 workers might still be alive inside several tunnels.
‘Miracle country’
Rescuers from Nepal, supported by specialists from India, China and South Korea, had spent days searching for workers feared trapped underground. Progress was repeatedly slowed by densely packed, hardened debris.
Until today, there had been no confirmed sign that any of the tunnel workers had survived.
Residents walk past a damaged house in Devighat, Nuwakot
Australian rescue expert Arnold Dix, who has been advising the operation remotely, said the mission had returned to “miracle country” after a “week of 24/7 heartache”.
Earlier, Mr Dix said teams at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project believed they had heard a faint reply from within the tunnel.
“They believe they received a faint response from inside saying, ‘hunchha’, yes or OK,” Mr Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said, adding that he was travelling to Nepal to join the rescue effort.
Rescuers had shouted into the tunnel: “Don’t worry, we are rescuing you.”
Mr Dix was also a key adviser during the 2023 Himalayan rescue operation that freed all 41 Indian workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel under construction.
He said crews had cleared between 50 and 60 metres of debris blocking the tunnel and were hoping to break through at any moment.
Less than an hour later, the two workers were pulled out alive.
‘Himalayan tsunami’
As hopes of finding survivors faded, some Nepali families searching for missing relatives had begun holding symbolic funerals in recent days.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal described the enormous wave unleashed by the rock and ice avalanche as a “Himalayan tsunami”.
Floodwaters ripped through mountain districts, destroying roads, bridges and several hydropower dams on 26 August.
Communities close to the epicentre remain cut off.
The United Nations has warned that the “magnitude of the destruction” is making aid deliveries extremely difficult. Cargo drones and porters are being considered as ways to reach isolated communities.
“Access has been very, very, very difficult,” UN chief in Nepal Lila Pieters Yahia said.
Nepal’s disaster authority says the number of bodies recovered is 1,259, while 5,083 people remain missing. In China, state media report that 21 people have been killed and 541 are missing.
The combined toll stands at 1,280 dead and 5,624 missing.
More than 800 foreigners from at least 34 countries are among those missing in Nepal and Tibet in China, including tourists and pilgrims.
