Nepal flood disaster: Rescuers rescue a Chinese survivor in a tunnel

Nepalese rescuers on Saturday successfully rescued a Chinese citizen from a tunnel buried in mud and rocks. Ten days have passed since the catastrophic floods occurred, and emergency rescue teams are intensifying their efforts to search for missing people.

The Nepal Army issued a statement saying that a joint rescue team composed of Nepal Army personnel and foreign experts rescued the man about 225 meters inside the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Station in Rasuwa District.

Rescue photos posted by the Nepalese military on its Facebook page showed the man, identified only as "Lu Haitao", with his arms on the shoulders of two rescuers wearing camouflage uniforms.

From the photos, he appeared to be conscious, but his hands were covered in thick, sticky sludge.

"His physical condition is currently being assessed and further search and rescue operations are continuing," the military said.

The survivor is one of hundreds of missing hydropower plant workers. On August 26, tsunami-like floods and mudslides caused by large-scale glacier and rock collapse swept across the China-Nepal border area, resulting in a large number of people missing.

Rescuers also rescued two Nepalese hydropower workers from the Trishuli 3A tunnel on Friday. Search and rescue operations are continuing in multiple locations, and floods have destroyed at least 12 hydropower projects.

According to data from Nepal's National Disaster Management Agency, so far, 1,344 bodies of victims have been found in Nepal, and about 5,000 people are still missing.

In China, state media reported that 31 people had died and 531 were missing. This brings the total death toll from the disaster to 1,375, with more than 5,500 missing.

Meanwhile, a woman in her 60s was rescued from a buried house in Betrawati, located in Nepal's Bagmati province on the border with Tibet.

It is reported that the police discovered the survivor covered in mud while clearing the disaster area, and she was subsequently airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment.

"We are continuing search operations in the tunnel" to find people who may still be alive, Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.

The Nepalese government previously stated that it believed that more than 100 workers may still survive in many tunnels.

Two mud-covered Nepalese men were rescued on Friday after being trapped at a flood site for nine days, in what rescuers said was nothing short of a "miracle".

The two people have been sent to the hospital for treatment and are currently in stable condition.

Experts from India, China, Australia and South Korea assisted Nepali rescuers in searching and rescuing the blocked tunnel.

With morgues overwhelmed, Nepal police said on Saturday that some 1,030 bodies had been buried in mass graves after DNA samples were taken for future identification.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah has pledged to provide "safe and comfortable shelter" to thousands of people displaced by the disaster and currently living in makeshift relief camps.

"We know it is not easy to live there (relief camps)," he said in a social media post on Friday, "but we will recreate an environment where you can envision and build a future."