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🇹🇭 Thailand /Disasters & Emergencies

Nepal Tunnel Rescues Face an ‘Unprecedented’ Challenge

From Bangkok Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Rescue teams are conducting simultaneous searches in hydropower tunnels after the August 26 disaster on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,385 people and left more than 5,500 missing.
  • Three workers have been rescued from the tunnels, raising hopes that other survivors may still be found on the operation’s thirteenth day.
  • Nepalese teams, supported by experts from China, India and South Korea, are searching on the ground, from the air and inside tunnels.

Nepal’s rescue operation has become a series of simultaneous missions in dangerous Himalayan hydropower tunnels, a challenge Australian expert Arnold Dix said he had never faced before.

We are facing something I have never faced before.

· Arnold DixThe Australian rescue expert described the scale and complexity of the operation.

The August 26 glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,385 people, while more than 5,500 remain missing across the two countries. Hundreds of hydropower workers are among those missing, and rescue efforts have entered their thirteenth day.

“We are facing something I have never faced before,” said Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association. “Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties, and lives that may still be saved.”

Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties, and lives that may still be saved.

· Arnold DixHe explained why the tunnel operation presented an unprecedented challenge.

Nepal observed a national day of mourning on Monday in line with traditional Hindu rituals, but rescue teams continued operating at the same pace as on the first day, Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP. “Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels, on ground, by air, and in the tunnels. We are making sure that no one is still stranded,” he said.

Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels, on ground, by air, and in the tunnels. We are making sure that no one is still stranded.

· Raja Ram BasnetThe Nepal Army spokesman described the continuing rescue effort.

The rescue of three workers from deep inside the tunnels, two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday, has strengthened hopes of finding more survivors. Foreign experts from China, India and South Korea are assisting Nepali teams. Dix, who advised the 2023 Indian rescue of 41 men trapped for 17 days in the collapsed Silkyara tunnel, said that experience had taught him not to confuse an unlikely rescue with an impossible one. “We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon,” he said.

We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon.

· Arnold DixHe emphasized the rescue teams’ commitment to continuing the search.
About this summary

Originally published by Bangkok Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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