Two trapped tunnel workers rescued in Nepal ‘miracle’

Dix was a key adviser during the Himalayan rescue effort that successfully freed all 41 Indian workers trapped inside a collapsed under-construction road tunnel in 2023.

Dix said teams had dug through debris blocking the tunnel for 50m to 60m and had been hoping for a breakthrough at any moment.

Less than an hour later, rescuers pulled the two men to safety.

“HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI”

Some Nepali families who were searching for their missing loved ones had began holding symbolic funerals in the last days, in a sign of dimming hopes for survivors.

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has called the gigantic wave triggered by a rock and ice avalanche a “Himalayan tsunami”.

Floods had tore through mountain districts, destroying roads, bridges and multiple hydropower dams that day.

AFP reporters flying by helicopter over the valley of destruction on Thursday saw entire sections of settlements swept away, leaving the landscape resembling a puzzle with pieces missing.

Picturesque villages of green paddy fields and houses sat beside vast chunks of land washed away.

Communities near the epicentre remain cut off.

The United Nations has warned that the “magnitude of the destruction” makes delivering aid an immense challenge, with cargo drones and porters being considered to reach isolated communities.

“Access has been very, very, very difficult,” UN chief in Nepal Lila Pieters Yahia said.

Nepal’s disaster authority says number of bodies recovered is 1,259, with 5,083 people missing. In China, state media say 21 people had been killed, and 541 people are missing.

That takes the overall toll to 1,280 people, with 5,624 missing.

More than 800 foreigners from at least 34 countries are among those missing, including tourists and pilgrims, in both Nepal and Tibet in China.