Search and rescue teams operating in Nepal recovered four survivors from mud-submerged buildings and hydropower tunnels over a two-day period, according to reports from Reuters and AFP. The rescues occurred nearly two weeks after catastrophic floods and landslides struck the region along the Nepal-China border on September 26, according to government and military updates.
Recent Survivor Rescues in Nepal
According to the Nepal Police, emergency responders located 60-year-old Chandika Shrestha on October 5 in the village of Vetrawati, located in Bagmati Province’s Nuwakot district. Police officers deployed for nearby road clearance heard faint cries from a four-story building that had been pushed roughly 100 meters up a hillside by the floodwaters, leaving its lower levels encased in thick mud. Rescuers broke a window to enter the structure and extricate Shrestha, who was subsequently airlifted by a military helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment, according to Deputy Inspector General of Police Iqbal Hawaii.
Shrestha’s family had reportedly given up hope of finding her alive, holding funeral rites on the eighth day after she and four family members went missing during the initial disaster. Her recovery marked one of four survivor extractions accomplished over a 48-hour window by joint international and domestic response teams.
Hydropower Tunnel Operations and International Teams
Rescue personnel deployed inside the tunnel network of the Upper Trishuli-1 hydroelectric project also located survivors. According to the Nepal Army, South Korea’s Korea Overseas Emergency Relief Team (KDRT), working alongside local responders, located and pulled a Chinese national named Luhaitao from 225 meters inside the project’s plant tunnel on October 5. The worker was conscious during the extraction and was identified as one of hundreds of hydropower laborers reported missing when the floods hit.
One day prior, responders rescued two Nepali workers from the tunnel of the Trishuli-3A hydroelectric facility. According to local health updates reported by The Kathmandu Post, both Nepali workers were admitted to a hospital in Kathmandu and remain in stable condition.
Casualty Figures and Ongoing Search Efforts
Following the recent extractions, Nepali authorities are maintaining active search operations inside the blocked hydropower tunnels, where government assessments indicate more than 100 workers may still be trapped alive. Updated government statistics place the total death toll from the disaster at 1,331 in Nepal, a slight downward revision from an earlier count of 1,344, with approximately 5,000 individuals remaining missing. Across the border in China’s Tibet region, authorities recorded 31 deaths and 531 missing persons, bringing the combined cross-border death toll to 1,362 with over 5,500 people unaccounted for.
Related reading