Chinese Survivor Pulled From Flooded Nepal Tunnel After 10 Days In Darkness

Nuwakot / Rasuwa — Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower tunnel (Audit 4) – Nepali Army soldiers pull a mud-covered Chinese national from the darkness after he was trapped for 10–11 days following the August 26 Bhotekoshi flood.

The footage shows two camouflage-clad soldiers supporting the barefoot man out of the dark tunnel onto wet gravel. A blue-helmeted rescuer stands beside him, while an orange-helmeted soldier and a man in a red shirt are visible behind.

The soldiers then carry him across the rocky riverbed toward a dark green Army helicopter marked NA-045 and lift him into the cabin.

Inside, the survivor sits in a dirty work jacket with mud covering his legs and hands as a soldier checks him. A red-cross medic bag is visible, while soldiers outside give thumbs-up as the helicopter door closes.

The man was identified as Chinese national Lu Haitao, also known as Luhaitao. A joint team found him about 225 metres inside Audit Tunnel 4 of the 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 project, which is under Chinese contractors.

He was flown out by helicopter for assessment, with his condition described as being evaluated.

Together with Sanjay Sah and Kabir Maharjan, three workers had been brought out alive from the Trishuli tunnels by that date. Search operations inside other flooded tunnels continued.