Rescue & Aid

Miracles appear from the rubble

By YAN JIE (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-20 07:57

4-year-old girl, grandma saved 120 hours after deadly quake

GYEGU, Qinghai -- More than 120 hours after the devastating earthquake hit Yushu, rescuers are witnessing miracles.

In a rugged village more than 20 km from Gyegu town, the seat of the Yushu prefecture government, rescuers from Sichuan province pulled two survivors from the rubble - a 4-year-old girl and her 68-year-old grandmother, who had been trapped for about 123 hours.

Half of their bodies had been buried under the collapsed building. Family members tried but could not get them out because of the heavy debris. Instead, they could only look on, feeding their beloved ones water and porridge in the hope rescuers would come.

"They were determined to stay alive," Ao Dingqiang, a 40-year-old rescuer from Guang'an of Sichuan, told China Daily.

The girl, Tsering Palkyi, suffered only minor injuries and has returned to her family, according to rescuers.

Her grandma, Urgyen Tsemon, has been kept under medical observation for potential life-threatening injuries.

The latest miracle came as rescuers stretched their efforts from Gyegu to reach remote villages in the mountainous plateau terrain.

Both survivors are from Xinzhai village, about 20 km east of Gyegu town and 3 km from the main road.

Local villagers called for rescuers' help after seeing them distributing food and clothes nearby, Ao said. The eight-man rescue team drove to the scene and found the girl and old woman still conscious.

However, pulling them out of the rubble was no easy task, said Ao. Rescuers used a hydraulic jack to lift the collapsed mud-brick wall and roll it down a slope to make enough room for the trapped villagers to get free.

They were not the last survivors rescued on Monday.

A Tibetan woman in Yushu was pulled out about 6 pm on Monday, about 130 hours after the quake, State broadcaster CCTV reported.