China's national rescue team successfully pulled a female resident alive from the wreckage of a collapsed hotel in quake-hit Mandalay City in Myanmar at 00:40 local time on Monday -- nearly 60 hours after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country.
The female survivor, found with stable vital signs, was pulled from the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel following a five-hour operation. She is the first person saved by the China Search and Rescue Team since their arrival in the hardest-hit city on Sunday afternoon.
The devastating earthquake left half of the hotel severely tilted, with the ground floor reduced to rubble.
After detecting survivors at around 19:30, Chinese rescuers entered the rubble and spoke to one of them, who was conscious.
Several rescue teams -- including the China Search and Rescue Team, volunteer responders from China's Shenzhen City, and a team from Russia -- are conducting joint operations on site, racing against time to save more lives during the critical 72-hour "golden period."
The China Search and Rescue Team also joined rescue efforts at the Sky Villa Condominium, one of the buildings most severely affected in Mandalay City.
Of the four 11-story apartment buildings in the complex, only the top six floors of one remained standing after the disaster, while the lower levels had completely collapsed.
As of Sunday afternoon, cries for help could still be heard from the rubble of three collapsed buildings as rescue teams were rushed to the scene.
The China Search and Rescue Team, upon arrival in Mandalay City at around 17:00 local time on Sunday, deployed an emergency squad to the area for a preliminary field survey.
About 1,700 people died, 3,400 were injured, and 300 remained missing in the massive earthquake that struck Myanmar, according to the country's State Administration Council on Sunday.
Chinese rescue team pulls survivor from collapsed Mandalay hotel
Chinese rescue team pulls survivor from collapsed Mandalay hotel
