Nepal flood rescuers pull survivors from hydropower tunnel as death toll passes 1,300

Rescuers in Nepal have extracted three workers alive from the blocked Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel, tunnelling expert Arnold Dix told the BBC, describing the operation as "layer upon layer of miracles." The tunnel entrance had been buried completely by an avalanche triggered on August 26 near the Nepal-Tibet border.

Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said his team located the entrance using old topographic maps, satellite imagery, helicopter footage, and surface landmarks such as power poles. Rescuers then dug through mud and boulders — some larger than cars — using controlled explosives, a technique normally avoided for fear of collapsing the tunnel.

“It's like layer upon layer of miracles that they found two men on Friday.”

The Nepalese army managed the blasts with precision, Dix said. Two Nepalese workers were brought out on Friday; a Chinese man was rescued on Saturday and airlifted by military helicopter alongside South Korean disaster experts. Separately, a woman was found alive in her mud-buried home in Nuwakot district.

Authorities report at least 1,300 dead and more than 5,000 missing across five districts. The disaster, caused by a glacier collapse or ice-rock avalanche, devastated 12 hydropower projects where about 900 workers remain unaccounted for and 500 are believed trapped in tunnels. International teams from China, India, South Korea, and the United States have joined the search.

Identifying the dead has become a major challenge. Nepal police say 1,344 bodies have been recovered, including at least 85 children, with around 500 missing body parts. Only 98 have been identified so far. DNA samples are being collected from relatives to help name more than 1,000 unidentified bodies already buried.