"Voices heard after nine days"... Two rescued from tunnel at Nepal hydropower plant

[Financial News] Two Nepalese employees were rescued on the 4th, local time, from a flood-damaged hydropower-plant tunnel, nine days after catastrophic flooding hit Nepal.
The rescue has raised hopes for hundreds of other employees believed to be trapped in tunnels at several power plants.
The Nepalese government announced that rescue workers, including Nepalese Army personnel, rescued two Nepalese employees alive while searching a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station in central-northern Bagmati Province that day.
Nepal's Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said, "One person has just been safely rescued from the Trishuli 3A tunnel," while Home Minister Sudan Gurung later stated in a statement, "I have just received word that another person has also been rescued."
Local television news channels aired footage of the first rescued employee, covered in mud and being carried away from the site on a rescuer's shoulder.
Medical personnel are checking the rescued workers' health.
The first rescued employee was identified as Sanjay Shah, the plant's mechanical foreman, while the second was identified as mechanical supervisor Kabir Maharjan, The Kathmandu Post reported.
Rescue teams are stepping up their search after receiving information that people may still be trapped inside the tunnel.
Nepalese lawmaker Ram Neupane, who has participated in the search, said that voices were heard from inside the tunnel during the operation. "The rescue team shouted, 'Don't panic. We have come to rescue you,' and someone inside the tunnel replied, 'Understood,'" he said.
Nepalese rescue teams have been searching after determining that hundreds of employees may be trapped in tunnels at several hydropower plants.
They focused their search efforts on two plants, including the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, where they estimated that about 90 employees could be trapped alive in the tunnels.
The Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station is located downstream on the Trishuli River from the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Power Plant, where nine missing Korean employees worked. The two plants are about 6 km apart.
 


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