An 85-year-old woman miraculously survived spending three days buried underneath piles of rubble after a deadly earthquake struck southwestern China last Sunday, The Telegraph reported.
Rescuers in Yunnan province were shocked to discover the elderly woman was still breathing when they found her on Wednesday, three days after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook several isolated farming communities in the province's mountains.
As of Wednesday 589 people have been confirmed dead, a major spike from the 410 deaths that were reported Tuesday. The reason for the sudden spike in deaths was not immediately clear. Another 2,400 people have been injured, with over 230,000 being evacuated from their homes, according to Agence France-Presse.
Crews continue dig through piles of debris from thousands of collapsed mountain homes, rushing to free the victims that are feared trapped.
"There are a lot of people that we may never be able to dig out," said Senior Colonel Feng, who did not give The Telegraph his full name. "But there is still hope."
Rescue efforts have been focused in the town of Longtoushan in the Ludian county, the epicenter of the quake. Makeshift shelters were packed with survivors turning to each other for comfort, AFP reported.
"I lost my seven-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son in the earthquake," 30-year-old Yan Anqiao said. "I am not sure if I can ever have a real home again without my children."
School dormitories were also destroyed in Sunday's quake, reminiscent of a devastating 2008 earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan that killed thousands of children when their poorly-constructed dorms collapsed, AFP reported. Over 80,000 people were killed in the 2008 earthquake.
Southwest China in general is prone to earthquakes. A magnitude 7.7 quake in 1970 in Yunnan province killed 15,000 people, the BBC reported.
