Believing she had died in Nepal's devastating floods, the family of elderly Chandika Kumari Shrestha had already begun mourning rituals. Ten days later the rescuers found her alive inside her collapsed home in Betrawati village where she survived in a small air pocket trapped amid water and mud.
Police officer Mahendra Darnal said the four-storey house had been swept into a quicksand-like pit. While searching the area, his team heard a voice calling for help. After a 45-minute rescue on Saturday Shrestha was pulled out and sent to an army hospital. Darnal said her family had already started an 11-day mourning period.
Betrawati is among the worst-hit areas in Nepal, buried under thick, concrete-like mud deposits. Hundreds remain missing there, and recovery crews continue pulling out bodies. Most buildings, some four storeys tall, were destroyed by the flood, part of a disaster that has killed over 1,300 people nationwide with thousands still unaccounted for.
Rescuers in hard hats continue digging by hand and crawling through debris, blowing whistles to locate survivors. Days earlier 24 decomposed bodies were found in a collapsed shop in Betrawati's market.
Eleven days after a glacial collapse triggered the floods nearly 5,000 people remain missing. Bodies have washed up far from Rasuwa district, prompting mass burials of unidentified victims in Chitwan.
Despite fading hope, rescue efforts continue at tunnels and mud-covered sites. Since Friday, three people including a Chinese national were pulled alive from a tunnel near the Trishuli river is still over 900 remain trapped. Other survivors include an 8-year-old boy reunited with his mother after surviving by climbing trees.
