San Francisco Frontiers - Two trapped tunnel workers rescued in Nepal 'miracle'

Rescuers cheered as one man emerged through a muddy opening, a video released by the energy ministry showed.

He was helped to his feet by rescuers, and later carried on the backs of the emergency workers, raising his hand as they took him towards a helicopter.

A photograph showed the second man caked in mud, his hands pressed together in prayer, as rescuers brought him away on a stretcher.

Rescuers called it a "miracle" after the disaster last Wednesday that has killed at least 1,200 people and left more than 5,000 missing in China and Nepal.

"I am so happy, my heart is lighter," Amir Maharjan, the brother of rescued worker 45-year-old Kabir Maharjan, told AFP.

The men were identified as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, as well as Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, by Home Minister Sudan Gurung.

The Nepal Army said the two men were receiving medical treatment and that "search and rescue operations are ongoing."

The two are among hundreds of hydropower workers missing since a wall of mud and debris swept through the region on August 26 after a vast glacial and rock collapse on a mountain on the China-Nepal border.

Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha confirmed that rescue at the Trishuli 3A tunnel.

Searches were continuing at that tunnel and other sites, with at least 12 hydropower projects smashed by the floods.

The government had initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.

- 'Miracle country' -

Nepali rescuers, aided by experts from India, China and South Korea, have continued searching for survivors feared trapped inside hydropower tunnels, but teams had repeatedly hit walls of hard-packed debris.

Until Friday, none of the tunnel workers had been confirmed alive.

Australian rescue expert Arnold Dix, who has been supporting the operation remotely, told AFP that the rescue efforts were "back in miracle country" after a "week of 24/7 heartache".

Earlier Friday, Dix said teams at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project believed they had heard a faint response from inside the tunnel.

"They believe they received a faint response from inside saying, 'hunchha', yes or OK," Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, told AFP, adding that he was en route to Nepal to join the rescue effort.

He said rescuers had called into the tunnel: "Don't worry, we are rescuing you."

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 50 to 60 metres (164-196 feet) 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 bene 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.

G.Collins--SFF