Dozens of people are being searched for in hydropower plant tunnels in Nepal after a massive flood

Rescuers in Nepal have focused their search on three hydropower plant tunnels where dozens of workers may still be trapped. Following the devastating flood in Nepal and Tibet on August 26, thousands of people are still considered missing. Reuters reports, UNN conveys.

Details

Nepal’s rescue service has focused on workers trapped in three tunnels

According to the Nepalese authorities, search teams have focused on the tunnels of the Chilime, Upper Trishuli 3A and 3B hydropower plants. People may have been trapped inside after a glacier collapsed into a river on the border between Nepal and China on August 26. The flow of water and debris buried the entrances to at least 11 hydropower plants under rubble and mud, cutting off access to those trapped inside.

Our search operation is focused on finding survivors, particularly in the tunnels. We are focusing more on the Chilime hydropower plant, where we believe people became trapped because there was a canteen, accommodation and catering arrangements

According to him, oxygen is being supplied to the tunnels through special pipes, and rescuers have also delivered new equipment needed to clear the passageways.

According to military rescuers’ estimates, around 121 of the approximately 900 people reported missing during the events at the hydropower plants may have been in the tunnels, while others may have been working in other areas of the plants rather than inside the vast network of tunnels.

In recent days, search teams have rescued four people, including a Chinese national who was pulled from a tunnel on Saturday. The others were two hydropower plant workers rescued from another tunnel on Friday, and a Nepalese woman who was pulled from her buried home on Saturday. At least 1,399 people died as a result of the landslide, while more than 5,400 are considered missing in Nepal and Tibet. As of Saturday, 43 people had died on the Chinese side, while 519 people missing there are considered

The publication also reports that none of the bodies found in Tibet belonged to foreign nationals.

Background

Following the devastating flood in Nepal, rescuers found alive after ten days an elderly woman whom her family had already believed dead. Seventy-three-year-old Chandika Kumari Shrestha survived under the rubble of her own four-story house. The disaster claimed more than 1,300 lives, and around 5,000 people went missing.