2 saved from rubble after China quake kills 2,000
April 20, 2010 - 0:0
JIEGU, China (AP) – Rescuers pulled a 4-year-old girl and an elderly woman alive from the rubble Monday, more than five days after an earthquake killed nearly 2,000 people in a Tibetan region of western China. Aid convoys clogged the main road into the remote mountainous area. China Central Television said the pair had been trapped under a bed in a collapsed mud house in a village about 13 miles (20 kilometers) from the hardest-hit town of Jiegu, until rescuers dug them out Monday morning. Relatives kept Wujian Cuomao, 68, and Cairen Baji alive by sending them food and water through gaps in the rubble with the help of bamboo poles, state broadcaster CCTV said. The woman was in critical condition, CCTV said, while the child was suffering from heart problems due to trauma. The death toll from the quake in Qinghai province climbed to 1,944, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday. More than 12,100 people were hurt. At least 1,100 bodies were cremated or buried by Saturday, according to the provincial civil affairs department.