Miraculous rescue in Nepal: two people found alive nine days after the flood
Rescue services manage to pull two workers alive from a tunnel, while hundreds remain missing
BarcelonaWhen it was already starting to seem almost impossible, it happened. This Friday, nine days after the great flood that devastated Nepal, two workers trapped in a tunnel of a hydroelectric infrastructure have been rescued alive. The men have reported that there are more people alive inside the infrastructure.
The survivors were located about 170 meters from the tunnel entrance. Nepalese rescue teams heard voices inside, and from that moment on, they intensified the rescue efforts. Until this Friday, when they managed to bring them out. Before freeing them, the rescuers were able to establish a brief communication with the two trapped people: "Do not be afraid, we are rescuing you," they shouted toward the inside, from where the trapped workers replied with an "Okay!".
The two rescued people are Sanjay Sah, mechanical foreman, and Kabir Mahran, mechanical supervisor. Both were working on the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric project, located in the Nuwakot district, north of Kathmandu, in one of the areas hardest hit by the floods of August 26. Reports prepared by the authorities indicate that 42 workers were trapped in this underground power plant.
Upon being rescued, Sah recounted to a Nepalese army team what the moments before the arrival of the flood were like. "I told everyone [the workers] that there had been an accident at the main dam and asked them to flee. When I finished doing so, I had already lost the opportunity to get out. I could not flee".
Thousands of workers and foreigners missing
Rescue efforts have been concentrated for days on various similar infrastructures in the region, where hundreds of workers remain missing. Everything suggests that most have been trapped in tunnels blocked by mud and rubble.
Nine days after the flood, the death toll in Nepal and Tibet has risen to 1,280, and the number of missing persons remains at 5,600, including about 800 foreigners. Amid the devastation, 85,000 people have been left homeless.