Kathmandu— Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese hydropower worker and a Nepali woman alive from flood wreckage on Saturday, ten days after a glacier collapse in the Himalayas unleashed a torrent of water, rock and ice that devastated the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts north of Kathmandu. The rescues, coming within hours of each other, renewed hope that more people could be found alive as Nepal’s flood death toll passed 1,331 and about 5,000 people remained missing.

Rescues From Tunnel And Home

Lu Haitao was freed on Saturday from 225 metres inside a flooded tunnel at a hydropower plant in Rasuwa district, in the mountains north of Kathmandu. He was brought out by a joint team of Nepali soldiers and South Korean disaster specialists and appeared stable though mildly hypothermic as he was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Speaking afterwards to Chinese state television, he described calling out to rescue crews whenever he glimpsed their torchlight in the tunnel, only to go unheard each time, until a beam finally swept over him. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Separately, 64-year-old Chandika Kumari Shrestha was dug out of her collapsed home in the neighbouring district of Nuwakot. She was found covered in mud inside her flooded house, given water by rescuers before being airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, officials said.

Hope Renewed After Recent Survivals

Both Lu and Shrestha had been trapped since a glacier collapsed in the Himalayas on August 26, unleashing a torrent that swept through the valley. Coming within hours of each other, the rescues are the third and fourth in days, and have renewed hope that more of those still unaccounted for in the region’s flooded tunnels could be found alive.

Shrestha’s rescue followed that of two Nepali tunnel workers pulled alive a day earlier from a nearby hydropower site, the first survivors recovered from any of the region’s damaged plants. One of the survivors freed from the Trishuli 3A tunnel this week told rescuers that other workers were still alive further inside, the Nepali army said, and officials say further searches are now focused on that site.

Scale Of The Disaster

The disaster has now killed at least 1,331 people in Nepal and left about 5,000 people missing, including 589 foreign nationals, according to the country’s national disaster authority. Meanwhile, officials in Tibet, the autonomous region of China across the border, have recorded 31 deaths and 531 people missing.

About 900 workers remain unaccounted for at hydropower construction sites alone, with roughly 500 of them believed to still be trapped inside tunnels across a dozen projects wrecked by the floodwaters. The glacier collapse sent debris crashing into towns and villages built along river valleys that Nepal has relied on for hydroelectric power, destroying roads, homes and schools in an area popular with foreign trekkers and pilgrims.

International Search Effort

Search teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have since joined the operation, along with a 15-member Australian drone unit sent this week, after Nepal asked for outside help in a rescue effort that had relied mainly on its own forces.

Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Rasuwa district, said rain on Saturday had slowed the search there, though rescue teams were continuing to push ahead. Nepal’s information and communications minister, Bikram Timilsina, said authorities remained hopeful that more people would be found alive. “We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people,” he said.

Authorities remain focused on the Trishuli 3A tunnel and other hydropower sites where hundreds of workers are still unaccounted for, with international teams continuing to support the search despite challenging weather conditions.

(With inputs from Al Jazeera)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.