Nepal flood survivor found alive 10 days after presumed death

Chandrika Shrestha had already been mourned by her family when rescuers heard a faint voice beneath the mud and debris covering her collapsed home in Nepal's Betrawati.

The 64-year-old woman had spent 10 days trapped in a narrow pocket of air inside the remains of the four-story house. The building had been swept away by the floods and left in quicksand. Police officer Mahendra Darnal said he and his team heard someone calling, "Save me," while walking around the wreckage.

It took the officers about 45 minutes to reach Shrestha, who was confined inside the mud-covered structure. They took her to an army hospital for treatment. Darnal said he had been in contact with her family, who had already begun the 11-day mourning period after believing she had died.

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Save me

Her rescue brought a rare moment of hope to Betrawati, one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster. Rescuers have been digging through deposits that hardened almost like concrete, using shovels and crawling through gaps in collapsed buildings. Workers have also blown whistles, listening for signs of life.

The search continued as authorities reported 1,342 bodies recovered in Nepal and about 4,996 people still missing. Including casualties reported in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, the overall death toll stood at 1,385, with more than 5,500 people unaccounted for. The disaster followed a glacial and mountain collapse along the China-Nepal border that buried communities and destroyed homes, roads and bridges. Other survivors were recently pulled from hydropower tunnels, including two Nepali workers and a Chinese man.

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I was in touch with the family and they had started the 11-day mourning period