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Two Rescued 10 Days After Quake
Soldiers searching for the bodies of earthquake victims rescued a brother and sister Monday who survived 10 days trapped on the second floor of their damaged building, living off cereal and water.
``Everyone had given up hope of finding any survivors. This is a miracle,'' said Bakshi Singh, inspector general of the Border Security Force.
The rescue came even as demolition teams were clearing away the ruins of collapsed apartment buildings in Bhuj and other towns of India's western Gujarat state, and authorities turned to the monumental task of finding shelter for some 600,000 people left homeless by the Jan. 26 quake.
The two survivors were discovered by a team of soldiers who had gone into Bhuj's Karsana neighborhood to help a resident search for a relative's body. Once there, they met a policemen who said he had
heard faint cries for help, said Nazim Khan, a team member.
The soldiers checked the area and spotted a man waving through the grill of a second-story window of his damaged apartment building. The entrance was blocked by rubble, but 20 soldiers formed a human pyramid to reach the second-floor window, where they discovered the sister inside, said Khan.
The pair were uninjured, but weak. They had long ago finished all they had in the kitchen -- cereal -- and had been drinking only water, Khan said.
The man could walk and talk, but his sister had to be taken out by stretcher after soldiers cleared the building's entrance.
After a quick check up, the unidentified siblings were strong enough to
walk, doctors told the team. Khan said he believed they left the hospital and went to relatives outside Bhuj.
The 7.7-magnitude earthquake, which was centered 12 miles from Bhuj,
has killed more than 17,000 people, and the toll is expected to rise to 30,000 as more bodies are found when rubble is cleared, said Gujarat's Home Minister Haren Pandya. The injured numbered 66,758, Gujarat state
officials said.
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