Man rescued 179hrs after quake
2008-05-20 11:45
Beijing - A 31-year-old man was rescued on Tuesday, a miraculous eight days after China's earthquake buried him alive under a collapsed power plant, state media reported.
Rescuers battled for 30 hours to rescue Ma Yuanjiang, an executive at the plant, who survived for 179 hours when he was pulled out alive at 00:50 on Tuesday (1650 GMT Monday), the official Xinhua news agency said.
The earthquake flattened the power plant where he worked in Wenchuan county, close to the epicentre of the 8.0-magnitude quake, the report said.
No details on his condition were reported, but Xinhua said he would be airlifted to hospital in Chengdu, the capital of Sichiuan province where the quake struck on May 12.
China's worst national disaster in a generation has left more than 71 000 people dead, buried or missing, according to Sichuan authorities.
More than 10 000 people are still believed to be buried under the debris of flattened buildings but hopes of finding survivors are rapidly running out.
- AFP