"One More Person Nearby": Hope Sparked as Intensive Tunnel Search Continues

[Anchor]

Following the rescue of a Chinese survivor from inside a tunnel in Nepal, our rescue team is continuing its intensive search operations. No news has yet been heard regarding the missing South Korean nationals.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the details.

[Reporter]

On the 12th day since the floods struck Nepal, the Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) is carrying out ongoing search operations.

Inside the dark tunnel, the moment a Korean rescue team member shines a flashlight toward an arch-shaped structure.

[Rescue Team Member: Huh? Okay? Are you okay? Survivor!]

Shouts echoing that a survivor has been found fill the tunnel as team members move with urgency.

[Pass the belt, the belt. They found a survivor.]

The man, located behind a dense network of steel reinforcement structures, briefly wears a faint smile of relief upon spotting the rescuers.

[Lu Haitao / Chinese Survivor (via China's CCTV): When the rescuers saved me, I couldn't even make a sound because I couldn't believe it even when the light shone in my eyes.]

The dramatic rescue of Chinese national Lu Haitao on the 5th local time, exactly ten days after the massive floods hit Nepal, was fully captured on the helmet-mounted cameras of the Korean rescue personnel.

The rescue location was inside the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 hydroelectric power plant being constructed by a South Korean company, situated 225 meters inward past the mudflats near the entrance and waist-deep water.

[Im Pal-soon / Korea Disaster Relief Team Member: There was a massive accumulation of rocks, so we had to squeeze through a very narrow space to penetrate all the way inside the tunnel.]

The rescued Chinese man, Mr. Lu, pointed with his hand to the place where he was trapped and stated that there was one more person whose fate remains unknown.

[Rescue Team Member: Are there more people? There's one more person, right?]

In response, the Korean rescue team has re-entered the tunnel alongside the Nepalese military to conduct additional search and rescue operations.

During the second entry into the tunnel, one fatality was discovered, and the Korean rescue team handed over the body to the Nepalese military.

As casualties rise in the Tibet region of China, the death toll from these floods has been compiled at 1,384, with 5,515 people missing.

(Video editing: Kim Jin-won, Footage provided by: Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT))
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.