Nepal says 100+ workers may be trapped in flood tunnels

Nepal's government said more than 100 hydropower workers may still be alive and trapped in flood-swamped tunnels, as rescuers used drills and heavy machinery on Sunday to try to reach them.

Rescue operations entered their fifth day after floods on Wednesday morning. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 933 hydropower workers were missing after mud and debris swept through hydropower sites.

The main rescue effort was focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B hydropower sites in a Himalayan river valley. Nepal's energy ministry said four holes had been drilled and preparations were under way to enter a tunnel directly for search and rescue work.

Army rescue teams first broke through into the upper part of a mud-swamped tunnel at Trishuli 3A on Saturday evening, then began pumping air and sending in a camera. Overnight rain and higher river levels filled the excavation area with water early Sunday, before conditions eased and the Nepal Army said teams resumed work with drilling machines, excavators and hydraulic cutters.

The US Geological Survey said the disaster on the China-Nepal border was caused by a glacial collapse. Indian and Chinese tunnel-rescue teams have joined the operation, and Nepal's mountain rescue teams are also helping search at another damaged hydropower site.

The Nepal Electricity Authority said 11 hydropower stations and one solar power station, with a combined capacity of 431.1 megawatts, had stopped operating. It said another 15 power projects under construction, with a planned combined capacity of 470 megawatts, had also been damaged.