Rescuers extract two workers alive in Nepal as glacial flood toll reaches 1,290

Rescues at the Trishuli 3A plant

Emergency teams extracted two workers alive on Friday from a buried tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric project in Nuwakot district. Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, survived underground after glacial floodwaters inundated the facility on 26 August 2026. Rescuers located both men approximately 170 meters inside the tunnel before airlifting them to a hospital in Kathmandu with injuries to their hands and legs. Sah explained that he lost his initial chance to escape because he stayed in the control room to alert colleagues after the dam accident.

My responsibility was to save everyone's life.

Tunnel expert Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, advised Nepalese authorities on locating the buried entrance through topographic maps and satellite imagery. Rescuers reported hearing human voices from deeper within the structure on Friday morning, raising expectations of reaching up to 39 additional workers.

Casualty figures across the Himalayan border

The disaster followed the collapse of a glacier on 26 August 2026, sending floodwaters down the Trishuli river corridor. By Friday evening, Nepal Police reported that 1,290 bodies had been recovered and 4,788 people remained missing, including 601 foreign nationals. The national disaster management agency separately placed the missing total at 5,083 people. Across the border in Tibet, Chinese authorities registered 21 fatalities and between 541 and 550 missing persons, including 261 foreign citizens. In India, recovery teams retrieved three bodies carried downstream.

The flooding destroyed extensive residential areas and infrastructure across central Nepal, prompting authorities to estimate that more than 20,000 homes must be rebuilt. Emergency services also continued operations to locate more than 150 workers feared trapped across other hydroelectric sites.

Impact on schools and displaced children

Educational authorities reported that approximately 600 children remain untraceable across Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts nine days after the flooding. The surge struck during the morning hours as students walked to school, waited for transport, or remained at home. In Nuwakot district, between 300 and 350 students are unaccounted for, including 250 in the municipality of Bidur, while Rasuwa recorded roughly 280 missing pupils.

In some cases we have located surviving parents who cannot find their children, and in others, it is the students who are looking for their parents.

At Neelakantha Secondary School in Uttargaya, administrators cannot locate 200 of their 496 enrolled pupils, alongside four staff members. Unicef estimated that 17,000 children are affected by school closures and damage across the impacted region.

Identification efforts at Kathmandu hospitals

Families from mountain districts traveled to Tribhuvan University Hospital in Kathmandu, searching for relatives along a wall displaying photographs of missing and deceased individuals. Relatives such as Sati Sigdel and Sapna Neupane inspected the bulletin boards daily to check handwritten notes and physical descriptions. Families also gathered along the Bagmati River near the Pashupatinath temple complex, where cremations took place as remains arrived from affected river basins.