Rescue teams recovered 18 bodies from the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower tunnel on Friday.The bodies were located about 100 metres inside the tunnel's Audit-3 section; some had been trapped in steel reinforcement mesh and had to be cut free.
Police say the exact number of workers inside during the flood remains unconfirmed, and identification is difficult since the construction company kept incomplete worker records.
At a nearby but different project, Trishuli-3A, two workers, Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman from Saptari district, and Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor from Kathmandu, were pulled out alive nine days after the flood. Sah said he believed more people could still be trapped, noting that the force of the floodwater could have carried people deeper inside the tunnel. Maharjan was found with lost movement in his hands and legs, while Sah's injuries were less severe.
None of the 18 bodies have been identified or named so far.
