'Thought it was a cat': 5-year-old girl rescued from Nepal flood rubble after 60 hours

A 5-year-old girl trapped under the rubble of a building destroyed by catastrophic flooding in Nepal was rescued after roughly 60 hours and reunited with her parents.

According to the BBC and other foreign media, rescuers found Manisha Magar, 5, buried in debris near Shyabrubesi in the Rasuwa district on Friday (local time) — the third day after the floods struck — and pulled her to safety after a two-hour operation.

A rescue team from Nepal's Armed Police Force (APF) heard faint moaning beneath the rubble while searching the disaster site and initially mistook the sound for a cat. When the sound persisted, the team focused their search on that spot and began carefully clearing the collapsed debris.

Moments later, they made a stunning discovery: a survivor, roughly 60 hours after she had been buried. The rescuers spent about two hours methodically removing debris to prevent further collapse before finally pulling Manisha out unharmed.

When found, Manisha was alive but barely conscious, severely weakened by her ordeal.

The rescue team requested a helicopter to transport her to a hospital, but bad weather made flying impossible.

Rescuers instead moved Manisha to a nearby relief camp and administered emergency first aid. After giving her water and monitoring her condition, she gradually regained consciousness. The team fed her rice water to help her regain her strength.

The following afternoon, on Sunday (local time), Manisha was airlifted to a hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where she was reunited with her parents and is receiving treatment.

A hospital official said her condition was stable. However, after being buried for so long, she is suffering from severe exhaustion and psychological trauma.

Meanwhile, as of Monday (local time), Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority had recorded at least 788 deaths and 2,502 missing — including 592 foreigners — from the floods. Combined with figures from Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which reported 16 dead and 546 missing, including 261 foreigners, the overall death toll stands at a minimum of 804, with 3,048 people still unaccounted for.