Rescuers pulled two survivors from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on Nepal’s Trishuli River yesterday, nine days after a wall of ice, rock and mud tore through its valley, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving 5,600 missing.
Officials and rescue workers say they believe the August 26 collapse of a glacier on the upper reaches of the river trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects.
The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are the first to be rescued from the hydropower projects and have been taken to an army hospital in the capital Kathmandu, giving search teams a flicker of hope as the possibility of finding other survivors fades. The army said they had also recovered a body from the site.
Videos released by Nepali authorities showed Kabir Maharjan being hoisted from a hole in the ground as bystanders cheered, then lowered onto a stretcher. His colleague Sanjay Sah was brought out on a worker’s back, his face still caked in mud, before army doctors fitted an oxygen mask and checked his vitals inside a rescue tent.
Sah, a mechanical foreman, later described staying behind in a control room in a tunnel to help others escape after he urged colleagues to flee upon hearing news of the disaster.
“I was in the control room, so my responsibility was to save everyone’s lives. When there was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away,” he said in a video recording shared by Nepali authorities.
Sah told rescuers he spent time reciting mantras (verses from a prayer) while he was trapped. He said he had been in contact with three or four more people in the tunnel, while others could still be alive deeper in its reaches.
Nepal’s army said it had recovered two bodies from a tunnel at Langtang Hydropower Station.
At least 1,294 people have been killed in Nepal in the floods that swept away houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet, the disaster management authority said. More than 5,053 are still missing, including 583 foreign nationals, many of them pilgrims and trekkers.
China yesterday raised the death toll in Tibet to 31, with 531 others listed as missing, according to state media Xinhua.
The two rescued men are now in intensive care at an army hospital and their vital signs are stable, a source from the facility told Reuters. Mechanical supervisor Maharjan cannot move his hands or legs, but Sah’s injuries are not considered critical, according to an aide to the energy minister.
Amir Maharjan, Kabir’s brother said he has not received any news officially but has been told to go to the hospital.
“I have been hearing from the news that my brother has been found. The entire family is very happy,” Amir said.
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