Nepali woman found alive 10 days after family began mourning her

Chandika Kumari Shrestha was found alive inside her collapsed home 10 days after her family began the ritual mourning period for her presumed death. Rescuers discovered the elderly woman in a narrow pocket of air amid water and mud in Betrawati, one of the areas devastated by Nepal's floods.

Police officer Mahendra Darnal said his team heard a voice while walking around the remains of the four-storey house. "The four-storey house was swept (away) by the floods and the house was left in the middle of a quicksand. While walking around it, we heard a voice 'save me,'" he said.

Darnal and his team spent 45 minutes carrying out the rescue on Saturday before sending Shrestha to an army hospital. He said he had been in contact with the family and knew they had started the 11-day mourning period.

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The four-storey house was swept (away) by the floods and the house was left in the middle of a quicksand. While walking around it, we heard a voice 'save me,'

Betrawati was among the areas hit hardest by the disaster. A torrent swept through the valley, burying the town's market and most residential buildings under deposits that hardened almost like concrete. Crews continued digging with shovels and crawling through gaps in collapsed buildings, periodically blowing whistles for signs of life. Five days before Shrestha's rescue, workers found 24 decomposed bodies in a building that had housed a small shop.

Authorities continued searching tunnels and buildings beneath the mud even as hope faded. Since Friday, rescuers had pulled three people from tunnels, including a Chinese citizen near the Trishuli river, where more than 900 people were believed to be trapped. Shrestha was among the rare survivors of the disaster, alongside an eight-year-old boy who was reunited with his mother.

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