POKHARA, Nepal — Two workers in Nepal were pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel on Friday, some nine days after devastating floods swept the Himalayan region and left thousands of people missing.
In a rare glimmer of joy, emergency teams rescued two male workers — a mechanical foreman named Sanjay Sah, 30, and a mechanical supervisor named Kabir Maharjan, 45, according to Nepal’s army and the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority.
The two men were rescued from the Trishuli 3A tunnel, after the floods first hit Nepal on Aug. 26, likely caused by a glacier collapse, that devastated towns and swept away villages in the south Asian nation.
Rescue officials said the voices of other workers could be heard inside the tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Plant. At least 557 workers are still believed to be missing there about 115 are believed to be trapped in the debris-filled main tunnel, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.
Nepal’s army released images of the dramatic rescue on its official Facebook page, including one showing the first rescued worker covered in mud and being carried from the site on a rescuer’s shoulder.
“When hope is alive, even the impossible becomes possible,” the image caption read.
Officials said one man was in a critical condition while the other was stable, and that both were flown to a hospital in Kathmandu, the capital.
“I can’t explain what we are feeling at the moment. We are just grateful to God,” Amir Maharjan, the brother of one of the rescued workers, told The Associated Press. He said the family was on its way to the hospital to see him.
Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said one of the survivors told rescuers that more people were still alive inside the tunnel.
“We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people,” Nepal’s communication minister, Bikram Timilsina, wrote on his Facebook page.
About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in tunnels, according to local officials.
Authorities in Nepal say at least 1,287 people were killed and more than 5,000 remain missing after the Aug. 26 disaster, which is believed to have been set off by a high-altitude glacier collapse on the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region.
Rescue efforts are also still underway in China, where a mudslide hit a major land crossing between the two countries, with the only road to the site in Tibet’s Gyirong county fully reopening only on Wednesday. Chinese officials say at least 21 people were killed and 541 are missing on the Tibet side of the border.
Almost 600 foreign nationals are among those missing in the area, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. According to the State Department, 75 Americans remained unaccounted for as of Wednesday, while 16 had made their way to safety.
Sunil Pandey reported from Pokhara, Nepal, and Adela Suliman from London.
