Nepal flood death toll rises to 1,308, with 5,624 missing

KATHMANDU, Sept 4: Rescuers pulled two survivors from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on Nepal's Trishuli River on Friday, nine days after a wall of ice, rock and mud tore through its valley, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving over 5,600 missing.

Chinese state media reported 21 people killed in Tibet and 541 missing, taking the total toll from the August 26 glacial and mountain collapse to 1,308 dead and 5,624 missing.

Officials and rescue workers say they believe the August 26 collapse of a glacier on the upper reaches of the river trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects along the waters.

The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are the first to be rescued from the hydropower projects and have been taken to an army hospital in the capital Kathmandu, giving search teams a flicker of hope as the possibility of finding other survivors fades. The army said they had also recovered a body from the site.

Videos released by Nepali authorities showed KabirMaharjan being hoisted from a hole in the ground as bystanders cheered, then lowered onto a stretcher. His colleague Sanjay Sah was brought out on a worker's back, his face still caked in mud, before army doctors fitted an oxygen mask and checked his vitals inside a rescue tent.

Sah, a mechanical foreman, later described staying behind in a control room to help others escape after he urged colleagues to flee upon hearing news of the disaster.

"I was in the control room, so my responsibility was to save everyone's lives. When there was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away," he said in a video recording shared by Nepali authorities.

Sah told rescuers he spent time reciting mantras (verses from a prayer) while he was trapped. He said he had been in contact with three or four more people in the tunnel, while others could still be alive deeper in its reaches.

Nepal's army said it recovered two bodies from a tunnel at Langtang Hydropower Station, and continued searching.

At least 1,287 people have been killed in Nepal in the floods that swept away houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China's Tibet, the disaster management authority said on Friday. More than 5,080 are still missing.
�" REUTERS