Worldwide miracle survivals

PARIS, France – Below are a number of cases of miraculous survivals after quakes, building collapses or mine accidents around the world over the past decade:

• INDIA – February 5, 2001: Two victims of a quake in the western state of Gujarat are recovered alive in the ruins of their house by rescue workers, 10 days after the disaster which left 25,000 dead.

• IRAN – January 7, 2004: A 56-year-old man is pulled alive from the ruins, 13 days after a quake which left 43,000 dead in Bam in the southeast.

• PAKISTAN – December 12, 2005: A woman, 40, is pulled out alive from the rubble of her house in Kashmir, an incredible two months after a quake ravaged the region.

• AUSTRALIA – April 25, 2006: Two Australian miners are brought to the surface after two weeks of being trapped underground in a gold mine at Beaconsfield on the Australian island of Tasmania.

• CHINA – May 21, 2008: A woman is saved 9 days after being stuck in a tunnel under a waterworks in the town of Hongbai, in the southwestern province of Sichuan following a quake.

• CHINA – July 13, 2009: Three miners are rescued after 25 days of being trapped in a flooded mine in Guizhou province in southwest China, chewing on coal and drinking filthy water. Thirteen other miners died in the accident.

• HAITI – January 27, 2010: A young girl of 16 is pulled alive from the ruins, 15 days after a violent quake in Port-au-Prince which left between 200,000 and 250,000 dead. Several days earlier a young man of 25 had already been found alive. On February 9, a 28-year-old Haitian man is rescued after surviving 28 days buried in rubble after the January 12 earthquake.

• CHINA – April 5, 2010: 115 workers are pulled out of a Chinese coal mine at Wanjialing in the northern province of Shanxi, over a week after being trapped by flooding. They survived by eating tree bark, sawdust, paper and coal.

• CHILE – October 13, 2010: 33 miners, trapped for 69 days more than 600 meters underground at a gold and copper mine in San Jose in the north are brought safe and sound to the surface after a spectacular rescue operation.

• JAPAN – March 20, 2011: A 16-year-old boy and his disabled grandmother, 80, are rescued 9 days after the quake and tsunami which devastated the northeast of the country and in which almost 19,000 died.

• PERU – April 11, 2012: Nine miners blocked for a week in a copper mine in southern Peru are brought to the surface, unscathed, by rescue workers.

• CHINA – May 19, 2012: A miner, trapped in the depths of a coal mine for 17 days in the northeast after a flood, is found alive after a disaster in which 10 other miners died and 3 were listed as missing.

• BANGLADESH – May 10, 2013: A woman is pulled alive from the ruins of a nine-storey garment factory complex in Bangladesh more than 16 days after it collapsed and killed over 1,000 people.

– Rappler.com

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