Chinese Worker Rescued After 10 Days Trapped in Nepal Hydropower Tunnel
AM730 · 2 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A Chinese citizen was rescued alive from a tunnel at the Trishuli-3A hydroelectric power plant in northern Nepal on Saturday, 10 days after a devastating landslide struck the China-Nepal border region. The man was airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu where he was found to be in stable condition, with China's ambassador to Nepal Zhang Maoming visiting him at the medical facility . The successful rescue adds to the three survivors pulled from the tunnel, while authorities report over 1,300 confirmed deaths and nearly 5,000 people still missing .
Key Points
- The rescue operation was conducted by a joint team of Nepalese military personnel and South Korean disaster experts, extracting the man from a 225-meter tunnel at the Trishuli-3A hydropower station .
- The rescued man told reporters he had spotted distant lights from search crews multiple times during his 10-day ordeal, shouting loudly for help each time, but his calls went unheard due to the distance .
- Two Nepalese workers had been rescued from the same tunnel on Friday, September 4, bringing the total number of survivors extracted from the power plant to three .
- Nepalese police reported that as of Saturday morning, 1,344 bodies had been recovered from the disaster zone, with 4,898 people still listed as missing .
- Approximately 900 workers from 12 hydroelectric power stations across Nepal are estimated to be missing, with around 500 possibly trapped inside various tunnels .
Why It Matters
The dramatic survival of the Chinese worker after 10 days underground highlights both the resilience of those trapped and the mounting humanitarian crisis in Nepal's northern highlands. With nearly 5,000 people unaccounted for and hundreds of workers potentially trapped in damaged tunnels, the disaster has become one of the deadliest natural catastrophes in the Himalayan nation in recent decades, overwhelming local rescue and recovery capacities and prompting international assistance .
The dramatic survival of the Chinese worker after 10 days underground highlights both the resilience of those trapped and the mounting humanitarian crisis in Nepal's northern highlands. With nearly 5,000 people unaccounted for and hundreds of workers potentially trapped in damaged tunnels, the disaster has become one of the deadliest natural catastrophes in the Himalayan nation in recent decades, overwhelming local rescue and recovery capacities and prompting international assistance .