'Layer upon layer of miracles': How Nepal flood survivors were rescued from tunnel
Rescue teams in Nepal have successfully located and saved two survivors trapped in a hydropower tunnel following a massive flash flood. The operation involved complex engineering and the use of explosives to clear debris, led by international tunnelling expert Arnold Dix.
Why it matters
Highlights the extreme challenges of disaster response in mountainous regions and the importance of international technical cooperation in search and rescue missions.
Figure caption, Watch: Moment workers are rescued from Nepal tunnel
A tunnelling expert involved in the rescue operation at a blocked Nepalese hydropower tunnel has described to the BBC how they managed to reach survivors.
Arnold Dix has been advising Nepal's hydropower authorities on how to dig through the blocked tunnel to Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, which was one of several stations hit by last week's massive flash flood on the Nepal-Tibet border.
"It's like layer upon layer of layer of miracles" that they found two men on Friday, he said, given that the multiple challenges they faced.
The first hurdle was to locate the hydropower station, in a landscape rendered nearly unrecognisable by the flood that has so far killed 1,300 people.
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