88-year-old woman saved after being buried under rubble for 50 hours

World Today

An 88-year-old woman was rescued Tuesday after being trapped under the rubble of her home for 50 hours in Ludian County, a province in southwest China, which was jolted by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake on Sunday afternoon.

Xiong was buried after her home in Babao, a village five kilometers from the epicenter, collapsed in the quake. Her whereabouts were unknown until Tuesday when she called for help. The rescue soldiers arrived immediately.

“We came here and a man told us his mother was buried under the rubble. We heard her voice at this position, so we drilled a hole here and found through observation that this was the best place for rescue operation,” said Zhang Yuhu, chief of a PLA pipeline brigade stationed in Yunnan.

88-year-old woman saved after being buried under rubble for 50 hours

An 88-year-old woman was rescued Tuesday after being trapped under the rubble of her home for 50 hours in Ludian County, a province in southwest China, which was jolted by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake on Sunday afternoon.

The rescue staff opened a hole 30 centimeters (about one foot) in diameter and extended an infusion pipe to feed the woman glucose liquid. Meanwhile, they began dismantling the structure layer by layer until the woman could be reached.

Xiong was recovered after a six hour rescue mission and is now in stable condition receiving medical treatment at the Zhaotong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The death toll from the quake rose to nearly 600 people on Wednesday, where The Guardian reports rescue efforts were still badly hampered by traffic and landslides blocking roads.

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