Rescuers pull two survivors from Nepal hydropower tunnel as hopes rise for more

In a dramatic breakthrough after more than a week of desperate efforts, Nepali rescue teams pulled two men alive on Friday from a tunnel at the flood-hit Trishuli 3A hydropower project, and said they had heard other voices still coming from deep inside.

The two survivors were brought out in quick succession from a borehole drilled through the rock and earth, according to video from the scene that showed about a dozen rescuers hauling one man to safety as others clapped and cheered. A medical team was already moving toward the remote site in Rasuwa district, north of Kathmandu.

“Rescuers heard voices,” Bipin Regmi, police chief in the neighboring flood-stricken district of Nuwakot, told CNN.

The rescue effort has focused on an underground powerhouse accessed by a tunnel more than four kilometers, or 2.5 miles, long. Dozens of workers were inside when a wall of cement-like floodwater slammed into the river valley on August 27, triggering landslides and sweeping away homes, bridges and infrastructure across multiple districts.

At least 1,200 people have been confirmed dead across Nepal in one of the worst flood disasters the country has seen in decades. The deluge hit multiple hydropower projects strung along the Trishuli River and its tributaries, leaving more than 900 workers unaccounted for at various sites, including nationals of China, South Korea and India. For days, families had waited in anguish as rescue teams battled treacherous mud, rockfalls and unstable tunnels to reach the trapped.

Hopes had been fading. Experts say that for people trapped underground, the first hours are critical. Indian army Colonel Parikshit Mehra, who has been leading a specialist team at the Trishuli 3A site, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper this week that survivors often struggle quickly in total darkness.

“Getting stuck in a tunnel, you can't see anything. Generally if you stay in the dark you get disoriented in about 24-25 hours,” Mehra said. “Beyond that, after 48 hours, you start hallucinating. And then from there on it's always a fight.”

But, he added, “There have been miracles.”

The two rescues Friday were being hailed as just that, though authorities cautioned that the operation was far from over. The tunnel remains partially flooded, and rescuers were working in shifts around the clock, carefully expanding the narrow opening in hopes of reaching more survivors. Whether others in the tunnel are still alive remains unclear, but the voices heard by rescuers have injected new energy into the search.

The disaster has raised broader questions about the rapid expansion of hydropower infrastructure in Nepal’s fragile Himalayan landscape. The plants, many built in steep river valleys prone to sudden flooding, have become central to Nepal’s energy ambitions and foreign investment. But environmental experts and disaster-management specialists have long warned that climate change is making rainfall more erratic and extreme, increasing the risk of catastrophic flash floods in areas where large numbers of workers and residents are concentrated.

For now, the focus remains on the tunnels and the families still waiting for news. As one rescuer put it, every minute matters, and miracles are still possible.