"Another Survivor is Nearby," Survivor Testifies... Tunnel Search to Resume

[Anchor]

A Chinese survivor who was rescued by our rescue team in Nepal yesterday (the 5th) after 10 days has stated that there was one more person inside the hydropower plant tunnel near where he was. The Korea Disaster Relief Team operating locally has re-entered the tunnel to resume search and rescue operations.

Reporter Kim Minpyo has the details.

[Reporter]

Korean overseas emergency relief team members discover a survivor in a muddy hydropower plant tunnel.

[Korea Disaster Relief Team Member: Are you okay? Are you okay? Survivor!]

The survivor was found 225 meters inside the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 hydroelectric power plant, which is being constructed by a South Korean company.

This is the moment when a Chinese man who survived 10 days behind the reinforcing bars of a massive structure inside the dark tunnel is rescued.

The Chinese survivor, Lu Haitao, was transported to a hospital by a military helicopter and is recovering his health.

[Lu Haitao / Chinese Survivor: I feel a bit better, but sometimes I feel dizzy and my head feels heavy.]

[Lim Pal-soon / Fire Captain, National 119 Rescue Headquarters: The tunnel was very deep, with a cleared section of about 250 to 300 meters. With a huge amount of rubble piled up, we had to pass through a very narrow space to penetrate all the way into the end of the tunnel.]

At the time of the rescue, Mr. Lu pointed to the place inside the tunnel where he had been trapped with his hand and said that there was one more person, though their survival status was unknown.

[Korea Disaster Relief Team Member: Are there more people? (Yes.) You mean one person?]

Consequently, the South Korean rescue team has re-entered the tunnel along with the Nepalese military to conduct additional search and rescue operations.

Work is also underway to retrieve two bodies discovered during the tunnel search yesterday.

The rescue team has also included the powerhouse, where turbine and other power generation facilities are located, and the Yellow Bridge area, a major passageway, in the search scope.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun held a meeting with the Nepalese foreign minister to request support for the search operations to find the nine missing South Koreans and discussed cooperation measures, including future reconstruction.

(Video Editing: Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.