Nepal floods: Death toll climbs to nearly 1400 with 5000 missing, as two more people rescued alive

Two more people have been found in the rubble 10 days after Nepal’s deadly floods struck.

One of those was Chandika Kumari Shrestha, whose family had given up hope on her survival.

She was found alive 10 days after the wall of water raged through the Himalayas.

Rescuers found Shrestha inside her collapsed home in the devastated Betrawati village, where she had survived in a narrow pocket of air amid water and mud.

Police officer Mahendra Darnal said the rescue operation lasted about 45 minutes.

“The four-storey house was swept (away) by the floods and the house was left in the middle of a quicksand. While walking around it, we heard a voice ‘save me’,” he said.

When Mr Darnal and his team found Shrestha in a confined space, she was sent to an army hospital.

“I was in touch with the family and they had started the 11-day mourning period,” Mr Darnal said.

CNN reported that she sustained a deep injury to her right leg that requires surgery.

Shrestha was among the hundreds missing in Betrawati, an area among the hardest hit by the floods in Nepal and engulfed with white deposits compacted almost like concrete.

Crews continue to recover scores of dead bodies.

The town’s market and most residential buildings, some as tall as four storeys, were almost completely buried under debris left by a torrent that swept through the valley, part of a disaster that killed more than 1300 people across Nepal.

The other person rescued was a Chinese citizen who was found by the Trishuli River, where more than 900 are believed to be trapped.

Lu Haitao, 49, was pulled from inside a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.

His sister Lu Hairong told CNN she had stopped working since her brother went missing.

“It’s been more than ten days. I’ve just been so upset every day, I haven’t been able to think about anything else,” she said.

“(The whole family) feels relieved now. I’m in a better mood, so I’ll go back to work tomorrow.”

The two rescues come as the deadly floods reach yet another grim milestone, 11 days after the event.

Officials in Nepal and China say the death toll has risen to nearly 1400, most of which were recorded on the Nepalese side.

There, 1341 deaths. In Tibet, the number rose from 31 to 43 on Sunday.

However, those figures are expected to be a lot higher with more than 5000 people still missing, including 36 Australians.

Desperate search and recovery operations continue as the chances of survival grow slimmer.

The flash flood swept away a total of 11 hydropower plants that were either operational or under construction, as well as a solar power facility.

Hundreds of workers are among the missing.

Many are still believed to be trapped in tunnels and shafts at the facilities.

Specialist teams from India, China and South Korea continued to assist the Nepalese army with search-and-rescue operations, the foreign ministry in Kathmandu said.

- With AP