India, Sept. 19 -- Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is known in India for his role in the successful rescue of 41 workers from the Silkyara tunnel in 2023, has said people caught directly in the initial flood of water, mud and debris at Nepal's Chilime hydropower project had "no possibility of survival".

He described the disaster as one of the most extreme natural events he has encountered in decades of working on underground emergencies.

Dix, who has joined the emergency search operation at the flood-hit Chilime tunnel, shared a video from the site on X and said the scale and force of the disaster meant there was no basis for blaming Nepal or its engineers.

Dix described the disaster as "Mahapralaya", a term from the Ne...