Chinese rescuers on Monday morning pulled a pregnant woman and her five-year-old daughter out of rubble in quake-hit Mandalay, Myanmar, after they had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
The mother and daughter had been buried under an apartment building called Sky Villa Condominium since 12:50 local time Friday when the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar.
Hearing the faint knocking sounds made by the mother from beneath the rubble, the Chinese rescuers called for quiet around the rescue site to carefully identify the pair's precise location.
"We determined her location based on her knocking sounds. We required full-site silence to identify better the precise demolition depth needed to reach her," said Wang Mo, leader of the Chinese search and rescue team.
As the victims were trapped in a pancake collapse, the rescuers had to bore a tunnel vertically to reach them. To prevent causing secondary injuries to the pair, the rescuers immediately cleared away the debris fragments after boring through a layer of rubble. After drilling through two layers of collapsed floors, they created a narrow gap between them and the survivors.
The rescuers managed to pull the child and the mother out of rubble at 5:37 and 6:20, respectively, and immediately sent them to the hospital.
They were the second and third survivors the Chinese rescue team saved in Mandalay.
The Chinese rescuers later saved the fourth survivor they have spotted underneath the collapsed Sky Villa -- a 29-year-old woman.
The team had previously rescued their first survivor from underneath the rubble of the Great Wall Hotel, where the woman had been trapped for over 60 hours.
The death toll from the earthquake has risen to 2,056, with approximately 3,900 people injured and nearly 270 reported missing, according to data released by Myanmar's State Administration Council Information Team on Monday.
Chinese rescuers save pregnant mother, child from Myanmar quake rubble
