Rescuers dig into tunnel as missing toll from Nepal, China flood nears 3000
Rescue operations are underway in Nepal and China following a catastrophic glacial collapse that caused flash floods, leaving nearly 3,000 people missing. Authorities are attempting to reach workers trapped in hydroelectric tunnels as climate change concerns intensify.
Why it matters
The disaster highlights the increasing vulnerability of Himalayan communities to climate-driven geological events and the challenges of large-scale search and rescue.
Rescuers in Nepal and China are battling to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing entire villages.
Figures from both countries put the number of missing close to 3000, with 682 bodies recovered and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.
In a breakthrough late on Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped.
"We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside," Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.
More than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.
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