Teen pulled from Nepal rubble in ‘miracle’ quake rescue

Kathmandu: Rescuers pulled a 15-year-old boy alive from the rubble of Nepal´s earthquake Thursday, bringing a rare moment of joy to the ruined capital Kathmandu, five days after a disaster which killed more than 5,500 people.

The rescue of Pemba Lama, who stayed alive by eating jars of ghee, was hailed as a miracle by medics and met with cheers from crowds of bystanders who massed to watch the drama unfold.

But the recovery of another teenager´s body from the same ruins only minutes later underlined how the prospects of finding further survivors of Saturday´s 7.8-magnitude quake were becoming more remote.

His face caked in mud and dust, Pemba was fitted with a neck brace and hooked up to an intravenous drip before being lifted onto a stretcher and then raced to a field hospital.

"I don´t have any logical explanation. It is miraculous. It is a wonderful thing to see in all this destruction," Libby Weiss, a spokeswoman at the Israeli military-run facility, told AFP.

"He was under the rubble for 120 hours and it is certainly the longest we have heard anybody of being under the rubble and surviving.

"We understand he didn´t have any food and just two jars of ghee (clarified butter), which he had at the time he was under the rubble.

"He was triaged but, remarkably, speaking with us, fully conscious and was able to communicate and doesn´t have any major injuries or wounds. He is doing remarkably well." (AFP)