Nepal tunnel rescue revives hopes 10 days after flood

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Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese national alive on Saturday from a tunnel buried by debris, as emergency response teams dug with new vigour in the search for missing people 10 days after catastrophic flooding.

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A joint rescue team comprising personnel from the Nepal Army and foreign experts rescued the man from 225 metres inside the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa district, a military statement said.

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A picture of the rescue published on the army’s Facebook page shows the man, identified only as Luhaitao, with his arms around the shoulders of two camouflage-clad rescuers.

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He looked alert but his hands were covered in thick, slimy mud.

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“His health is currently being assessed and further search and rescue operations are continuing,” the army said.

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The survivor was among hundreds of hydropower workers who went missing after a tsunami-like wall of water and mud swept through the China-Nepal border following a vast glacial and rock collapse on Aug. 26.

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Two Nepali hydropower workers were rescued on Friday at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where searches continued alongside multiple other sites, with at least 12 hydropower projects destroyed by the floods.

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So far, 1,344 bodies have been recovered in Nepal, according to the national disaster agency, with around 5,000 people still missing.

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In China, state media said 31 people had been killed and 531 were missing there, taking the overall death toll to 1,375 people.

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Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP that “work is underway at the tunnels” to locate any survivors.

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The government initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.

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Rescuers called it a “miracle” after the two Nepali men, caked in mud, were pulled out alive on Friday, nine days after being trapped by the flood. They were taken to hospital and are said to be in a stable condition.

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Experts from India, China, Australia and South Korea have been aiding Nepali rescuers in their search of survivors inside blocked tunnels.

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With morgues overflowing, more than a thousand bodies hade been buried in mass graves after taking DNA samples for future identification, Nepal Police said Saturday.

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Prime Minister Balendra Shah promised to provide “safe and comfortable accommodation” for thousands of people displaced by the disaster and currently living in temporary relief camps.

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“We know that staying there (in camps) is not easy for you,” he said in a Friday post on social media. But he promised to “once again create an environment where you can dream about and build your future.”

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