The office of Nepal's energy minister says two people have been rescued alive from a hydropower tunnel nine days after floods hit the area.
Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha's office said in a statement that the two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor.
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Videos and photos released by Nepali authorities showed Mr Maharjan being pulled out of a hole in the ground amid cheering bystanders and put on a stretcher.
The other man, Mr Sah, was carried out on the back of a worker to a rescue tent, his face covered in mud.
In one of the videos, a team of army doctors attended to Mr Sah at a tent near the tunnel before he was taken to hospital, fitting what appeared to be an oxygen mask around his mouth and checking his vitals.
Mr Maharjan cannot move his hands and legs, but Mr Sah's injuries are not critical, an aide to the energy minister told Reuters news agency.
The two are being taken to an army hospital in Kathmandu, he said.
Both survivors are in the intensive care unit, a source from the army hospital where they were taken told Reuters, with their vital signs stable.
The 30-year-old said there were 35 to 45 people in the control centre when the floods hit.
"My responsibility in the control room was to save everybody's lives," he told a journalist shortly after his rescue.
"I told everybody about the situation and asked them to leave the room. In the process, I helped everybody get out, but I didn't have enough time to get out myself and run."
He said he believed there could still be some workers stuck inside the tunnel.
Amir Maharjan, Kabir's brother, said he has not received any news officially but has been told to go to the hospital.
Nepali politician Shri Ram Neupane posted news of the second rescue on his Facebook page shortly after army spokesperson Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet confirmed the first trapped worker's rescue during the operation.
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.
More search and rescue operations were underway around the Upper Trishuli 3A project, the Nepali Army said.
Rescue efforts were being led by the army and police, with assistance from experts from India, South Korea and China.
Dhan Bahadur Tamang, who earlier escaped from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project, upriver from where the two men were pulled out on Friday, said their rescue was a miracle and raised the hope of finding more survivors.
The rescues come nine days after the August 26 floods, likely caused by a glacier collapse, that devastated towns and valleys in Nepal.
At least 1,259 people were killed and more than 5,000 remain missing, according to the country's disaster management agency.
China, as of late Wednesday, said 21 people were killed and 541 were missing on the Tibet side of the border.
About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in tunnels, according to local authorities.
Thirty-six Australians remain unaccounted-for in the areas affected by the floods, while Australian disaster response specialists left for Nepal on Friday to join the search for survivors.
Property, housing and infrastructure worth at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees ($3.57 billion) were lost in the flooding catastrophe, according to Dharma Raj Upreti, the chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
Nepal will need to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, Mr Upreti said on Thursday, with at least 7,500 of those homes destroyed.
AP/Reuters
