Forty six construction workers found alive in metal containers after India avalanche
Dozens of construction workers have emerged alive from metal containers after being buried by an avalanche in the Himalayas.
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At least 46 people were rescued after they were buried alive in the metal containers which they had been living in.
They are understood to have survived because the containers had enough air inside to sustain them until they could be dug free.
Eight people were killed.
The operation to rescue them took almost 60 hours in sub-zero temperatures.
A senior rescue official told The Times of India: “These metal shelters saved most of them. They had just enough oxygen to hold on until we got them out.”
Satyaprakash Yadav, one of the migrant workers, from Uttar Pradesh, who was among those rescued, said: “The avalanche hit our container like a landslide.
"We managed to get out on our own and reached a nearby army guest house, where we stayed overnight," he added.
Rajnish Kumar said: “When the snow hit the container, it sank about 50 to 60 metres down [the mountain]. The Army arrived quickly and rescued us.”
Chandrashekhar Vashistha, a senior administrative official, said some of the workers had sustained serious injures and were in hospital.
Many of the trapped workers were migrant labourers working on a highway widening and resurfacing project along a 30-mile stretch from Mana, the last village on the Indian side, to the Mana Pass bordering Tibet.
"Rescue operations were slow due to heavy snowfall, and the area remained inaccessible," said Kamlesh Kamal, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
He said the rescuers had to work through several feet of snow, snowstorms and poor visibility.
The ecologically sensitive Himalayan region, which has been severely affected by global warming, is prone to avalanches and flash floods.
In 2022, 27 trainee mountaineers were killed in an avalanche in northern Uttarakhand. A year earlier, a glacier burst in the state resulting in a flash flood that left more than 200 people dead.