Nepal Rescues 2 Workers From Flooded Tunnel After 9 Days

After nine days buried in darkness, two men walked out of a collapsed tunnel in Nepal and straight into the arms of cheering rescuers.

Sanjay Shah, 30, and Kabir Maharjan, 45, were pulled alive early Friday from the main tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower construction site. Video from Nepal's Ministry of Energy shows Shah emerging through a small muddy opening, raising his hand as rescuers carried him toward a waiting helicopter.

Maharjan pressed his hands together in prayer as emergency workers lifted him onto a stretcher. "I am so happy, my heart is lighter," his brother Amir said after learning of the rescue.

The two men had been trapped since August 26, when a flash flood triggered by a partial glacier collapse devastated Nepal and Chinese-controlled Tibet. The cascade of water, rock, and mud racing down Himalayan valleys killed more than 1,300 people and left entire communities destroyed.

At least 557 workers remain missing from the Trishuli 3A project alone. About 115 are believed trapped in the main tunnel where Shah and Maharjan survived.

The Bright Side

One of the rescued men told emergency crews that more people remain alive inside the tunnel. That single piece of information has transformed the rescue operation from a recovery mission back into a race to save lives.

Nepal's Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina expressed renewed optimism on social media: "We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people." The Nepali Army confirmed that search and rescue operations continue while the two survivors receive medical treatment before being transferred to a hospital in Kathmandu.

The country has largely managed the crisis independently but accepted help from Australia, which sent 15 drone specialists Friday to aid the search. The team is working to locate 36 missing Australian citizens and assist with broader rescue efforts.

More than 5,600 people remain missing across Nepal and Tibet, with tens of thousands displaced from their homes. But Friday's rescue proves that survival is possible even after more than a week underground.

Shah and Maharjan are the first workers rescued alive from any of Nepal's hydropower stations or construction projects affected by the disaster. Their emergence from that muddy tunnel opening represents something precious: proof that hope has a place even in the darkest circumstances.