Survivor rescued 67 hours after China landslide

“He said he missed his mother very much and thought to himself, “I must get out”, a rescue leader was quoted as saying.

A teen-aged boy has been pulled out alive Wednesday after being buried for about 67 hours in debris following Sunday’s landslide in China’s southeastern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Shenzhen Jing News cited sources from rescue headquarters that Tian and another person were given treatment after medics rushed to the site.

Tian was one seventy six people declared missing after a tide of construction waste material and mud flowed into Shenzhen, a major industrial center across from mainland China that manufactures everything from plastic toys to smartphones and to cars, according to a USAToday report.

Two of those are the parents of 6-year-old Hong Laibao, who were delivering goods at the industrial park when the landslide occurred, engulfing factory buildings and homes.

Doctors said that Tian, a migrant worker from Chongqing, suffered many broken bones and other injuries.

He was given oxygen and an intravenous drip while rescuers removed the rubble around him by hand, a firefighting official told Xinhua.

He is in stable condition and has been taken to the operating room to receive a surgical debridement, said Wang Guangming, president of the hospital.

According to Xinhua, Tian Zeming was found at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday in a coherent state, but his legs had been crushed by the landslide. He somehow managed to survive all odds and was found alive three days after the landslide, after rescue workers rummaged through the debris.

Zhang Hu, a city vice-mayor, told a televised news conference that four bodies had been found. He said that even though the critical 72-hour period to find survivors had passed, they are continuing rescue efforts with a team of 5,000.

“We never thought it could be unsafe”, the man said.

Heavy rains then saturated the soil, causing it to collapse with massive force, the AP said.

In fact, the local government had only earlier this year identified that the large scale dumping happening by the mountain slope could end up in a catastrophe.

Government controlled news media reported the District Government near the landslide site had reported safety concerns months before Sunday’s disaster.