Chinese relief workers on Wednesday saved a 50-year-old woman from the rubble, 67 hours after a powerful 6.5-magnitude earthquake destroyed her home in China’s Yunnan Province even as the death toll climbed to nearly 600 as more bodies were pulled out from the debris.
liao Tengcui suffered from serious injuries on the waist and head and could not move her left leg when rescuers extracted her from a pile of rubble in Yinping Village of longtongshan Township in Yunnan province, said Wang lei, a member of China International Search and Rescue Team.But she was still conscious at the time of rescue, he said. Rescuers rushed her to the hospital for treatment.
liao’s daughter, who was unhurt in the quake was unable to find any help because of the damaged communication lines, stayed by her side and encouraged her to wait for rescue, he said.In two other cases, a 76-year-old man was pulled out of rubble at 5 pm on Tuesday at Babao Village, and an 88-year-old woman was rescued unhurt at the same village one hour and half later, State-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Another 179 people were confirmed dead on Wednesday, taking the death toll to 589.Rescuers are continuing to comb through quake rubble in southwest China, after the expiry of the 72 hour “golden period” when finding survivors becomes much less likely.