Nepal rescuers focus on 900 hydropower workers as 121 may be trapped in tunnels

Nepali rescuers are focusing on hydropower tunnels where as many as 121 workers could still be trapped, after four people were pulled alive from flood wreckage in recent days. The rescues have offered a glimmer of hope on the 13th day after a disaster that devastated towns and villages along the Himalayan border with China.

Army rescuers said the 121 people may be among 900 missing from hydropower projects. Others could have been working elsewhere at the plants rather than inside the extensive tunnel network. Rescuers believe some trapped workers may have survived because the tunnels contain air pockets, rooms and other spaces where people can remain.

At the Chilime hydropower project in the hard-hit Rasuwa district, rescuers were trying to locate four of six missing people who could still be alive, lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane said. Authorities had obtained specialised equipment and identified techniques for the operation.

Search teams rescued a Chinese national from a tunnel on Sept. 5, along with two hydropower workers from another tunnel. A Nepali woman was pulled from her buried house on Sept. 6. The rescues came as Nepal observed the final day of mourning in Hindu rites, with government offices and diplomatic missions flying the national flag at half-mast.

The disaster began on Aug. 26, when a mass of mud and rock triggered by the collapse of part of a glacier crashed into a river along the Nepal-China border. Floods then swept away settlements and buried roads under debris. Nepal has requested high-capacity drones, Bailey bridges, DNA testing kits, tunnel rescue suits and epidemic-prevention supplies. Chinese officials said they would continue search-and-rescue operations and manage post-disaster work.

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The Chinese side will continue to make every effort to conduct search-and-rescue operations and handle post-disaster matters.