Rescue teams search Nepal hydropower tunnels as death toll reaches 1,003

Rescue teams in Nepal continue to search water-logged hydropower tunnels in the country’s north, where hundreds of workers remain unaccounted for seven days after a flash flood devastated areas near the border with China.

The death toll has risen to 1,003, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for, the country’s Foreign Ministry said, adding about 590 foreign nationals from 39 countries are among them. Some 11,800 have been rescued.

As the authorities try to bring relief and supplies to survivors, rescue teams are racing to locate the hundreds believed trapped in the 12-13 tunnels of the many hydroelectric projects dotting the Trishuli river corridor.

The NDRRMA has listed 639 people associated with the hydropower projects as missing. But the authorities have not been able to establish how many of those could be inside the tunnels or may have been swept away.

At the Upper Trishuli-3A Hydropower Project, where rescue teams had located and drilled into the tunnel’s head on Monday, they were still pumping in air and draining water to enable entry. Excavators and rock breakers are clearing access routes to the 4 km-long tunnel, where between 30 and 40 people are believed to be in the underground powerhouse, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Since Monday, Nepali Army teams working with specialists from other countries have advanced further into several tunnels. The Foreign Ministry said 24 Indian and nine Chinese tunnel-rescue specialists are deployed at the affected sites, while a South Korean team has also arrived in Nepal.

A joint team reached 200 meters into the 9.5 km-long Upper Trishuli-1 tunnel. Rescuers also reached about 50 meters into the Chilime tunnel, and around 150 meters into Langtang – both about 3 km in length.