A five-year-old girl has been pulled alive from rubble two days after flash floods devastated Nepal, officials confirmed.
Manisha Magar was found on August 28 near Syabrubesi in Rasuwa district by rescue workers who initially mistook her faint cries for a cat, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said. The extraction took two hours, and the child was described as alive but barely responsive when she finally emerged from beneath the collapsed structure.
Helicopter evacuation proved impossible due to adverse weather conditions, so rescuers transported Manisha to their field camp instead. She was given water and fed boiled rice, after which she regained consciousness, the authority reported in its update.
The following day, August 29, the five-year-old was flown to the Teaching Hospital’s paediatric emergency department in Kathmandu for specialized care. She has since been reunited with her parents and remains hospitalized as she recovers from the traumatic ordeal, officials said in their latest briefing.
The disaster has claimed more than 700 lives as of August 30, according to the NDRRMA, with approximately 2,500 people still missing across the affected regions. Authorities face severe challenges identifying recovered bodies, many of which were found in advanced states of decomposition. DNA samples are being collected from remains that are no longer visually identifiable, the agency stated.
International concern has mounted as the scale of missing foreign nationals became clearer. Around 90 American citizens are believed to be among the unaccounted for, reports said, with many understood to have been on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. The US State Department confirmed on Thursday, August 27, that three American nationals had been rescued, and pledged $3.6 million in aid via a Twitter statement on Saturday.
British officials disclosed that more than 30 UK nationals remain missing. A rapid deployment team comprising specially trained crisis response staff arrived in Nepal on Friday to support Britons and their families, working alongside the British embassy and local authorities. The UK government committed a £5 million support package, approximately $6.77 million, combining United Nations, Red Cross, and non-governmental organization interventions.
The flooding struck with devastating speed, leaving thousands unaccounted for and overwhelming Nepal’s emergency response capabilities. The NDRRMA continues coordinating search and rescue operations amid difficult terrain and persistent weather challenges that have complicated both ground and air missions.
Manisha’s survival stands as a rare moment of hope amid the widespread destruction, her rescue coming after two days of entombment that rescue workers nearly missed entirely. The mistaken identification of her cries as an animal’s underscores how faint her signs of life had become by the time help reached her location.