Nepal's Multi-Tunnel Rescue 'Unprecedented', Expert Says as Nation Mourns

Nepal observed a national day of mourning on Monday, yet rescue teams continued an intensive search for workers still missing after the August 26 glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border. The multi-agency operation, now in its thirteenth day, is focusing on tunnels of hydropower projects where hundreds of workers were reported missing.

At least 1,385 people have been confirmed dead across Nepal and China, according to officials. More than 5,500 people remain unaccounted for. Among the missing are a large number of workers employed in hydropower construction sites, making the rescue effort particularly complex. The confirmed figure is expected to change as searches continue in remote villages and tunnels.

Arnold Dix, an Australian rescue expert and president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said the current operation was unlike anything he had encountered before. "We are facing something I have never faced before," Dix wrote on social media. "Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties, and lives that may still be saved."

Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP that the pace of the operation had not slackened since the first day. "Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels — on ground, by air, and in the tunnels. We are making sure that no one is still stranded," he said.

Early signs of hope came on Friday and Saturday, when two Nepali workers and then a Chinese worker were rescued alive from deep inside tunnels. Their recovery has strengthened the resolve of the rescue teams and raised the possibility that others may have survived, despite the dangerous and unstable conditions underground.

Foreign assistance has been central to the ongoing effort. Teams and experts from China, India, and South Korea are working alongside Nepal's own disaster response units. Specialised search-and-rescue personnel have been deployed by each of these countries to assist in the Himalayan tunnels. Dix, who is part of this international group, previously served as a key adviser during the rescue of 41 men trapped for 17 days inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, India, in 2023.

That operation ended with all 41 workers being brought out alive through a drilled passage, after weeks of round-the-clock drilling. The trapped men were eventually pulled to safety through a steel pipe wide enough for one person at a time. Dix drew on that memory in his latest remarks. "We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon," he said. "Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible."

The comments reflect both the seriousness of the current emergency and the determination among rescue workers to keep searching. With the area still hazardous and the number of unaccounted for very high, officials have not offered a clear timeline for when the rescue and recovery phase might end.

Monday's rituals honouring those lost were observed in line with traditional Hindu practices. But the rescue continued undeterred, with authorities confirming that the same level of effort would be maintained. As the Army spokesman said, the tempo remains the same as on day one.