Rescuers in Nepal worked through the night to reach hundreds of workers feared trapped inside collapsed hydropower tunnels, days after a catastrophic flash flood tore through the Nepal-Tibet border region. The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse on Wednesday, sent a torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris crashing down the Himalayas, killing more than 900 people and leaving 4,250 still missing. The scale of the destruction has overwhelmed local authorities, with many recovered bodies buried in shallow graves as they began decomposing in humid conditions.

Officials say 933 people remain missing across 24 hydropower projects in the flood zone, of which 12 have been completely destroyed, while 279 workers have so far been rescued. At sites such as Upper Trishuli 3A, soldiers pumped air into mud-choked tunnels and descended by rope calling out for survivors, often met with silence. A former energy minister coordinating the rescue estimated around 300 workers remain trapped across six to eight tunnels, warning survival chances depend on unknown conditions inside; specialist teams from India, China and South Korea are assisting, with a Chinese team recovering one body some 300 metres into the Upper Trishuli-1 tunnel.