{"id":887710,"date":"2026-09-08T07:46:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887710\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T07:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:46:25","slug":"search-for-900-missing-hydro-plant-workers-continues-in-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887710\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for 900 missing hydro-plant workers continues in Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nepali rescuers have searched for more than 100 hydropower workers feared trapped in tunnels days after four miracle rescues<\/a> from the wreckage of catastrophic floods that laid waste to towns and villages on the Himalayan border with China.<\/p>\n

The rescues on Monday offered a glimmer of hope as Nepal marked the 13th day after the disaster, traditionally the final day of mourning in Hindu rites, for the hundreds killed in the floods.<\/p>\n

About 121 of a total 900 people missing from the hydro-electric projects could have been trapped in these tunnels, army rescuers said.<\/p>\n

Others may have been working elsewhere at the power plants but not inside the vast network of tunnels.<\/p>\n

Among those rescuers were trying to find on Monday were four out of six people missing at the Chilime hydropower project in the hard-hit Rasuwa district who could still be alive, Shri Ram Neupane, a member of parliament involved in rescue efforts, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Authorities had obtained specialised equipment and identified techniques needed for the Chilime operation, Mr Neupane said.<\/p>\n

Rescuers believe that there could be survivors trapped inside tunnels because many had air pockets, as well as spaces and rooms for people to stay, they said last week.<\/p>\n

Nepal rescue efforts head to the skies<\/a><\/p>\n

A desperate Australian family charters a helicopter to fly over the Nepal-Tibet disaster zone to search for missing loved ones.<\/p>\n

In recent days, search teams in Nepal have rescued four people, including a Chinese national who was pulled from a tunnel on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The others were two hydropower workers rescued from another tunnel on Friday and a Nepali woman pulled out from her buried house on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Government offices in the Hindu majority country and at missions abroad would fly the national flag at half-mast to mark the 13th day after death, the home ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The day is considered the final day of mourning by the faithful, who commemorate it with rituals and food offerings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Entire communities have been wiped out after a glacial collapse triggered destructive floods on the Nepali-Tibet border. (Adnan Abidi\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement last week, the Australian government would deploy a team of specialist drone operators<\/a> to contribute to Nepal’s search-and-rescue efforts.<\/p>\n

“The team, including members of Fire and Rescue New South Wales and the Queensland Fire Department, will depart in the coming days as part of a 15-person Disaster Assistance Response Team,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“They will use advanced drone technology to provide rapid mapping and imaging to support Nepali authorities’ search operations.”<\/p>\n

More on the Nepal-Tibet floods<\/p>\n

At least 1,380 people have been killed by the mudslide. More than 5,500 are missing in Nepal and Tibet, among them 35 Australians.<\/p>\n

The disaster was triggered on August 26 when a huge mass of mud and rock, following the collapse of part of a glacier, crashed into a river along the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region.<\/p>\n

The resulting floods washed away towns and villages and buried roads and highways under mud and debris.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials said on Sunday that workers had recovered 12 more bodies as the search continued for hundreds still missing in Tibet.<\/p>\n

“The Chinese side will continue to make every effort to conduct search-and-rescue operations and handle post-disaster matters,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing.<\/p>\n

China has faced pressure from some families of foreign visitors missing in Tibet, who say they have struggled to obtain information on missing relatives.<\/p>\n

Mr Mao said Beijing would promptly release “updated information on the disaster situation and rescue activities.”<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

China has faced pressure from some families of foreign visitors missing in Tibet, who say they have struggled to obtain information on missing relatives. (Tyrone Siu)<\/p>\n

On Sunday, China for the first time invited journalists from eight foreign media outlets, including Reuters, to visit the core affected areas.<\/p>\n

With search teams still looking for survivors, Nepal’s government has not planned any wider events for the final day of mourning.<\/p>\n

“There are no government programs organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas,” Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) told Reuters.<\/p>\n

President Ram Chandra Paudel, the ceremonial head of state, was touring flood-hit areas on Monday and would survey damage caused by the disaster, his aide said.<\/p>\n

Security personnel at the district jail in Nuwakot, one of the two worst-affected districts, saved 923 prisoners by shifting them to a building in a higher location before floodwater entered their low-lying building on August 26, Prime Minister Balendra Shah said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Authorities also captured 50 prisoners who had broken the prison wall and gates as flooding began, and had fled barely 100 metres, Shah said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nepali rescuers have searched for more than 100 hydropower workers feared trapped in tunnels days after four miracle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,95,83,295,21440,307965,24887,55916,21208,66,58352,32265],"class_list":["post-887710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-disaster","tag-environment","tag-floods","tag-hydropower-workers","tag-mountain","tag-nepal","tag-rescue","tag-science","tag-tibet","tag-tunnels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}