Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese national and a Nepali woman to safety in separate operations Saturday, 10 days after devastating floods struck the country as search teams continue looking for thousands still missing.
The Chinese worker identified only as Luhaitao was rescued from a 225-metre tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project by a joint team of Nepali military personnel and South Korean disaster experts. He was airlifted by helicopter to an army hospital, appearing exhausted and covered in mud with a medic checking his vitals during the flight. He is the third worker rescued alive from the site, following two Nepali workers pulled from the nearby Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station on Friday.
Rescue operations are now concentrated on 12 hydropower projects nationwide, where around 900 workers remain missing and roughly 500 are believed trapped in tunnels. Specialized teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States are searching through debris and damaged structures at the sites.
In flood-hit Nuwakot town, a woman was rescued alive from inside a mud-covered house, according to Nepal's army. She was given water with wrapped in a blanket and airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment.
The Aug 26 floods, believed to have been triggered by a glacier collapse in the Himalayan valley have killed more than 1,300 people with over 5,000 still missing, according to Nepal's disaster management agency.
