Mandi miracle: Woman defies death to claw out of landslide debris after digging with bare hands for 5 hours

A 20-year-ol woman has miraculously survived after being buried in a landslide at Sharan village in Seraj valley of Himachal’s Mandi district. The woman kept herself alive by clawing a breathing nook for herself and kept digging with her bare hands for five hours until she was found and rescued, TOI reported.

The woman, identified as Tuneja Thakur, realised she would not survive if she did not survive. “I removed enough mud to be able to breathe,” she told TOI.

Her family and villagers waited anxiously for her for five hours. Tuneja says that it felt like a lifetime when stuck inside. “I just knew one thing – I had to come out alive,” she said. Eventually, Tuneja was pulled out by her parents.
Amid widespread destruction in Mandi due to flash floods, Tuneja’s battle for survival stands out for sheer tenacity in one of the villages worst affected by the June 30- July 1 cloudburst. The flash flood struck at around 11.30 pm on June 30.

“Everybody ran out. It was pouring and floodwater was entering houses. People were screaming in panic. I stepped out looking for a safe place when a land mass suddenly slid down and fell on me just around the corner of my house,” said Tuneja.

Himachal deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri and leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur met the woman last week and praised her death-defying act.