Nuwakot, September 6
An armed police and Nepal Police team rescued a woman alive from a mud-filled house in Betrawati on Saturday, 11 days after the devastating flood in the Bhotekoshi River.
The woman, identified as Chandika Shrestha, was found trapped inside a four-storey house that had been swept away by the flood and deposited at another location.
So far, four people trapped in the flood-hit areas have been rescued alive. Three of them were rescued from tunnels.
The rescue team heard a woman’s voice while searching houses in the Betrawati area. The rescue operation was led by Armed Police Force Inspector Suman BK.
Speaking to Onlinekhabar, BK said the house belonged to Anand Shrestha and had been swept away by the flood on the third day. Three of its four floors had been buried in mud, with only part of the upper floor visible.
“As we were walking around the house, we heard a sound. We could not tell whether it was an echo or someone calling for help. But it sounded like a woman’s voice,” BK said.
After hearing the voice, the disaster-management-trained Armed Police team broke through a window that was partially visible above the mud and entered the house.
“We found her with about half of her body buried in mud. Only a small part of her body and her head were visible,” he said.
‘We heard the voice around 1 pm’
According to BK, the rescue team heard the voice at around 1 pm while carrying out a search operation.
“We have been going from house to house, calling out and checking inside. We have been doing this continuously,” he said.
Ten disaster-management-trained Armed Police personnel were deployed under BK’s command, while another team from Nepal Police was operating under the command of a police inspector.
It took the teams around 40 to 45 minutes to rescue the woman.
“She was buried in mud. We removed the mud, cut through the window and pulled her out. We then took her outside and sent her to Kathmandu,” BK said.
‘She could not walk’
BK said the woman was unable to walk when she was rescued.
“She had been pressed down by the mud. The upper part of her body was relatively safe, so she could speak a little. She was conscious and able to talk, but we did not allow her to speak much because her condition could deteriorate,” he said.
Asked whether rescue teams had reached the house earlier, BK said the security personnel had been searching the area for the past 10 days.
“We have been here and around this area for 10 days. From one house alone, we had recovered 22 bodies,” he said.
The search operation is continuing in the flood-hit area.
“Our search operation is continuing. We are deployed in the morning, afternoon and evening, at all times,” BK said.
