ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: Two women were plucked alive from the rubble of collapsed Margalla Towers on Tuesday after they remained trapped there for more than 80 hours since Saturday’s earthquake.
The two women — Mrs Tariq, 55, and her mother Mah Begum, 75, — were the only survivors pulled to safety on Tuesday.
The recovery brought the figure of survivors from the building to 89 while 33 bodies have also been found from the ruins, according to a local official Tariq Rahim.
Both the women were shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) where their condition was stated to be stable.
Mah Bibi had her left foot fractured but her daughter went unscathed, a doctor at the PIMS said.
Four other family members of the ladies — Anjum Tariq, 35, Mamoon Tariq Khan, 34, Haris, 20, and Talha Khan, 3, — had left the building soon after the building shook.
“I, my mother Mah Bibi, my daughter Anjum Tariq and her son Talha were on the first floor of the building while my son Mamoon Tariq and nephew Haris were in another flat at the 8th floor,” survivor Mrs Tariq said.
“I pushed my daughter Anjum and her son Talha out of the flat when we felt the jolts. I again went inside to take my mother, but the building collapsed in the meantime,” she told this reporter at the hospital.
“I and my mother fell near a beam and we had very small space to move. There was complete darkness inside and we heard no human voice near us,” she said.
The rescue effort lasted 10 hours, with the women being pulled out at 5.10pm, said volunteer Safdar who was the first to detect them alive.
When the first contact with the survivors was established, their first inquiry was about their family.
According to a senior army officer, they asked rescuers not to pull them out if their family members had perished.
APP adds: Relief workers have rescued 100 people, including 41 children, from the rubble of a private school building in Balakot.
According to a private TV channel, about 60 bodies have also been retrieved from the school building.
Around 370 students and teachers were trapped in the four-storey building.
A French rescue team managed to pull out at least 100 people alive, including 41 children, from the rubble.
ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: Two women were plucked alive from the rubble of collapsed Margalla Towers on Tuesday after they remained trapped there for more than 80 hours since Saturday’s earthquake.
