Two workers trapped in a tunnel were rescued in a 'miracle' in Nepal
Nepalese rescue teams, with the help of experts from India, China, and South Korea, have continued the search for survivors.
Photo of one of the rescued workers in Nepal
On Friday, two workers at a hydroelectric power plant were rescued alive from a tunnel buried under rubble in Nepal, a rare ray of hope on the tenth day of rescue efforts following the catastrophic floods in the Himalayas.
Rescuers applauded as a man was pulled through a muddy opening in a video released by the Ministry of Energy. Rescuers helped him to his feet, and paramedics then carried him on their backs, while he raised his hand as he was led toward a helicopter.
A photograph showed the second man covered in mud, with his hands clasped in prayer, as rescuers carried him on a stretcher.
"As long as there is breath, there is hope!," Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said in a statement.
"Rescue operations are continuing in all the affected tunnels. Let everyone's efforts and prayers continue. We have not lost hope," he added.
Rescue teams called it a "miracle" following the glacier and landslide disaster that occurred on August 26 on the border between China and Nepal, which has left at least 1,280 dead and more than 5,500 missing.
"I am so happy, my heart is lighter," Amir Maharjan, brother of the rescued worker Kabir Maharjan, told AFP.
The men, both Nepalese, were identified by Interior Minister Sudan Gurung as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, and Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor.
The prime minister's office reported that Shah was in "stable condition" and that Maharjan was in intensive care.
"It's a miracle"
Lakshmi Naini, who said Maharjan is her brother-in-law, waited outside a hospital in Kathmandu, where he was rushed by helicopter.
"It's a miracle! I am very happy," she told AFP. "I heard he is alive through social media, and I could not believe it."
"I have no words to express how I feel," said another relative, Shyam Maharjan, 45.
The two were among hundreds of hydroelectric power plant workers who had been missing since a mudslide and debris flow swept through the region on August 26 following a massive collapse of glaciers and rocks on a mountain on the border between China and Nepal.
Search efforts
Initially, the government had said it believed that more than 100 workers might still be alive inside various tunnels.
Nepalese rescue teams, with the help of experts from India, China, and South Korea, have continued the search for survivors feared to be trapped inside the hydroelectric plant's tunnels, but the teams have repeatedly encountered walls of compacted debris.
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