Rescuers in Nepal have pulled a Chinese man and a Nepali woman alive from the wreckage left by the catastrophic floods that struck the country 10 days ago, raising hopes that more people may still be found in the rubble.

The man, identified as Lu Haitao, was rescued from a flooded hydropower tunnel in the Rasuwa district, while 64-year-old Chandika Kumari Shrestha was found alive in her collapsed home in the neighbouring Nuwakot district. Both rescues took place on Saturday, coming within hours of each other, and mark the third and fourth people to be pulled alive from the debris in recent days.

According to a social media post by Nepal's prime minister's office and confirmed by the Nepali army, Lu was found in a 225-metre tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project. He was brought out by a joint team of Nepali soldiers and South Korean disaster experts and was airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, where he was reported to be in stable condition.

In an audio recording shared by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Lu described his ordeal, saying he repeatedly called out to rescue crews whenever he saw their lights, but they could not hear him. 'When they rescued me today, when they shone (the light) before my eyes, I couldn't believe it,' he said. CCTV reported that he was suffering from mild hypothermia but was otherwise in a stable condition.

The rescue of Lu brings to three the number of workers pulled alive from the Trishuli hydropower project, after two Nepali workers were rescued from the Trishuli 3A plant the previous day. His rescue followed the dramatic recovery of Shrestha, who was found covered in mud inside her damaged home in Nuwakot. She was given water by rescuers before being airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, officials said.

The back-to-back rescues have reinvigorated the search efforts, which have been focusing on a dozen hydropower projects across Nepal where about 900 workers remain missing, many of them feared trapped in the network of tunnels. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have been scouring the debris and damaged structures, hoping to find more survivors.

Nepal's information and communications minister, Bikram Timilsina, said authorities remained hopeful that more people would be found alive, though experts have cautioned that the chances of survival are diminishing with each passing day. The massive infrastructural damage has complicated the rescue work, with more than 40 bridges having collapsed and rivers swelling unpredictably.

The flooding, which was triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on August 26, has devastated the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Tanahun. The confirmed death toll in Nepal stands at over 1,300, according to Nepal's disaster management agency, with more than 5,000 people still missing. The disaster has also affected the Tibetan side of the border, with officials there recording 31 deaths and 531 people missing.

The Nepali government has released a provisional damage assessment, saying the floods have destroyed more than 7,500 houses, 48 public buildings and about 100 bridges. With morgues overflowing, about 1,030 bodies have been buried in mass graves after having DNA samples taken for future identification, Nepal Police said on Saturday.

In a sign of progress, a team was able to reach the remote Nepal-China international border crossing at Timure in Rasuwa district on Saturday, where they placed Nepal's flag, according to a statement from the prime minister's office. "After three days of continuous efforts, Nepal's national flag has been reinstalled along the Nepali border," Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on social media.