Nearly 50 people survived a deadly avalanche inside metal containers in the Himalayas.
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But 46 construction workers survived in containers they had been living in while building a highway near Mana village, in Chamoli, northwest of Nepal.
Two avalanches hit the camp within five minutes, hurtling eight containers and a shed down the mountain on Friday.
Despite the force of the blow, the containers retained enough oxygen to keep the workers alive for nearly 60 hours in below-freezing temperatures before they were saved on Sunday.
The result was far better than the 50% death rate from avalanches in the region, which have killed 70 people in recent years.
‘These metal shelters saved most of them’, a senior rescue official told The Times of India. ‘They had just enough oxygen to hold on until we got them out.’
It took roughly 250 army and border police personnel, stationed nearby, to dig the workers out of the snow.
Pictures from the scene show rescue teams using ice picks, shovels and a digger to uncover the trapped men.
Others show them carrying stretchers through a blizzard.
Among the dead was Anil Kumar, a 23-year-old who joined the construction team as a chef in October.
He had been due to return home on March 1, after postponing the trip on February 22.
‘We videocalled him on February 27 and he complained about the weather’, his father Ishwari Prasad told The Indian Express.
That was a day before the avalanche. Initially, the family was told Anil was alive in hospital. In reality, he was dead and had been mixed up with someone else.
‘He was supposed to be home’, his father said. ‘If only he had come.’
In a post on X, the Indian Army said it ‘extends heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of those who lost their lives in this tragedy’.
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