By Gopal Sharma and Saurabh Sharma
KATHMANDU, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Two people were pulled out alive on Friday from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on the Trishuli River, nine days after a ice, rock and mud slide swept through a valley in Nepal, killing more than 1,200 people and displacing tens of thousands.
Officials and rescue workers believe the August 26 collapse of a glacier on the upper reaches of the Trishuli River trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects along the river.
At least 1,252 people were killed in Nepal as houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet were swept away. More than 4,200 people are still missing and thousands more displaced.
China has put the death toll in Tibet at 21, with 541 others listed as missing.
The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are the first to be rescued from the hydropower projects.
They were Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha’s office said in a statement.
Videos and photos released by Nepali authorities showed Maharjan being pulled out of a hole in the ground amid cheering bystanders and put on a stretcher.
The other man, Sah, was carried out on the back of a worker to a rescue tent, his face covered in mud.
A team of army doctors attended to Sah at a tent near the tunnel, fitting what appeared to be an oxygen mask around his mouth and checking his vitals, in one of the videos.
“His name is Sanjay Sah and he was working in mechanical control room. The vital parameters look normal,” an army official said.
Maharjan cannot move his hands and legs but Sah’s injuries are not critical, an aide to the energy minister told Reuters.
The two will be taken to a hospital in Kathmandu, the aide said.
Amir Maharjan, Kabir’s brother, said he has not received any news officially but has been told to go to the hospital.
“I have been hearing from the news that my brother has been found. The entire family is very happy,” Amir said.
A team of experts in a WhatsApp group was guiding rescue workers in the search at the hydropower projects in what has become a valuable tool alongside helicopters and heavy machinery in the race to find survivors.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma and Saurabh Sharma; Writing by Tom Hogue; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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