Nepali woman found alive days after family began mourning rituals

Believing she died in deadly floods in Nepal, the family of Chandika Kumari Shrestha has begun mourning rites for the elderly woman.

Ten days later, rescuers found her alive in her collapsed house in the devastated village of Betravati, where she had survived in a narrow air pocket surrounded by water and mud, Reuters reports.

"A four-story house was swept away by the flood and left in the middle of quicksand. As we were going around it, we heard a voice saying, 'Save me,'" said police officer Mahendra Darnal.

During a 45-minute rescue operation on Saturday, Darnall and his team found Shrestha in a confined space and transferred her to a military hospital.

"I have been in contact with the family and they have already begun an eleven-day mourning period," Darnall said.

Shrestha was among hundreds missing in Betravati, one of the worst-hit areas in Nepal by floods that have left a white deposit compacted almost like concrete. Crews are still recovering dozens of bodies.

The city's market and most of the residential buildings, some of which were four stories high, were almost completely buried by debris left by the torrential rain that swept through the valley, in a disaster that killed more than 1.300 people across Nepal. Thousands are still missing, Reuters recalls.

Rescuers in protective helmets dug with shovels, while some crawled through openings in collapsed buildings and occasionally blew whistles to attract the attention of any trapped survivors.

Five days earlier, 24 decomposing bodies were found in the Betravati market area, in a building that housed a small shop, Darnall said.

In search of signs of life

Eleven days after a glacier collapse caused devastating floods, nearly 5.000 people are still missing.

Hundreds of bodies were washed ashore on riverbanks far from the hard-hit Rasuwa district. In Chitwan, hundreds of kilometers away, several mass burials of unidentified and badly decomposed bodies were held.

Although hope is beginning to fade, Nepalese authorities continue to search for people trapped in tunnels and under thick layers of mud that have hardened over buildings.

Since Friday, three people, including a Chinese national, have been pulled from a tunnel near the Trishuli River, where more than 900 people are believed to be trapped.

Others, like Shrestha, survived in extremely difficult conditions, including an eight-year-old boy who was reunited with his mother.