The inside of the Nepal Hydroelectric Power Plant Tunnel was so dark that only the areas where flashlights and headlamps reached were blurry. The floor, which was completely covered with mud and turned into a wasteland, was littered with steel structures that had been bent or cut by debris flows the size of a large tsunami.
On the afternoon of the 5th (local time), when rescue workers from the Korea Overseas Emergency Relief Service (KDRT) shined a flashlight at the area where the rebar pillars were erected at the top of the tunnel, a human figure was vaguely visible.
Soon, the urgent voice of a rescue worker shouting โSurvivor. ARE YOU OK?โ rang out from inside the tunnel. Another rescuer shouted, โWe found a survivor.โ
The survivor, who was sitting behind a steel column of the superstructure inside the tunnel, was wearing long-sleeved clothing on top, but underwear underneath.
As the rescue worker climbed up holding on to the steel structure installed on the wall, he asked in English, โWe are a Korean rescue team. What is your nationality?โ
This survivor seemed to want to get out as quickly as even a second, so he tried to get out between the rebar pillars on his own, and the rescue team shouted โwaitโ in English.
The survivor, who showed a faint smile after discovering the rescue team, was identified as a Chinese man.
He was rescued 10 days later from 225 meters inside a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydroelectric power plant construction site in Rasuwa district, Bagmati Province, north-central Nepal, following a major flood that occurred in the Himalayan mountainous region on the border between Nepal and China on the 26th of last month.
This rescue scene was captured on the 'head camera' installed on the helmets of KDRT rescuers and was released on the 6th.
Although the Chinese survivor was assisted by a rescue team, his health did not appear to be so bad that he was able to climb down to the bottom of the tunnel by holding on to the steel structure on his own.
According to the Associated Press and China Central Television (CCTV), he said, "Every time I saw the lights of the rescue team in the distance, I screamed as hard as I could," and that it seemed like the rescuers could not hear him because of the distance.
He added, "I couldn't believe it when the rescuers came today and found me."
KDRT plans to conduct an additional search inside the tunnel on this day after obtaining a statement from a Chinese survivor that there was one more person whose life or death is unknown nearby.
KDRT rescue workers dispatched to Nepal on the 2nd are fighting every day to rescue at least one more person.
In the tunnel's inner section, which was filled with mud, they had to crawl over muddy fields to get inside, and at some points, they waded through waist-deep river water to search.
KDRT recovered one unidentified body and confirmed the locations of two other bodies inside the UT-1 hydroelectric power plant tunnel, where a large ready-mixed concrete truck had fallen on its side the previous day.
The place where the Chinese survivor was rescued is close to the area where nine Koreans who were constructing the UT-1 hydroelectric power plant went missing. The missing Koreans include six Doosan Energy employees and three Korea South-East Power employees.
KDRT continues to search the area near the UT-1 hydroelectric power plant with helicopters and drones to find missing Koreans.
A KDRT official said, "During the additional search (inside the tunnel) today, we plan to deploy one member who can speak English," and added, "The Nepal Army expressed appreciation for KDRT's activities after the tunnel rescue and search operation ended yesterday."
As of the previous day, 1,375 people had died and 5,531 were missing in Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region, which border the border, due to a major flood that occurred in the upper reaches of the Himalayan mountain range on the 26th of last month.
