Two hydropower workers were pulled from a tunnel buried by debris in Nepal on Friday, more than a week after catastrophic flooding swept through the area, government ministers said. Rescuers cheered as one man was pulled from a muddy opening, video released by the energy ministry showed. He was helped to his feet by rescuers. A photograph showed the second man caked in mud, his hands pressed together in prayer, as rescuers carried him away on an orange stretcher.

The men were named as Sanjay Shah, 30, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor, by Home Minister Sudan Gurung. "I am so happy, my heart is lighter," Amir Maharjan, the brother of rescued worker Kabir Maharjan, told. The two are among hundreds of hydropower workers missing since a wall of mud and debris swept through the region on August 26. Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha confirmed that one person had been safely rescued from the Trishuli 3A tunnel, followed shortly afterwards by a second.

"We have just received news that another person... has also been rescued," Gurung said in a statement. The government had initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels. Searches were continuing at Trishuli 3A and other sites. Rescue teams in Nepal have recovered more than 1,250 bodies, and more than 5,000 are missing, after the gigantic wave triggered by a rock and ice avalanche roared down the China-Nepal border. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)