Nepal has intensified efforts to free hundreds of people trapped inside tunnels at hydropower projects, including the Trishuli-3A site, following Wednesday’s flash floods. Rescuers, including experts from India and China have been attempting to make contact but have so far received no response from inside the tunnel.

 

Hundreds of the 2,500 people reported missing are believed to be employees of Nepal’s hydropower projects. Wednesday’s disaster has killed at least 794 people and more than 2,500 people are missing in Nepal. In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing, while rescuers are struggling to find survivors. 

 

Bodies have been recovered from all eight affected districts of Nepal as rescuers race against time to search for those missing and rescue those stranded. A suspension bridge in central Nepal was swept away today due to a fresh flood in the Trishuli River.

 

The bridge connected Ghyalchowk of Gandaki Rural Municipality-8 in Gorkha district of Gandaki province with Charaudi along the Prithvi Highway. The flood, which lasted for around three hours, swept away the bridge at around 11.30 AM.

 

With the flood washing away the bridge, residents of Gandaki Rural Municipality 7 and 8 have lost their access to the Prithvi Highway. Before this, the devastating flash floods on August 26 had swept away a bridge at Dhawadighat, a little distance downstream from Kathmandu. Locals had been using the Ghyalchowk-Charaudi Bridge as an alternative to the Dhawadighat Bridge.