Quake baby rescued from rubble

Rescuers today pulled a baby girl from the rubble of her home in Pakistan eight days after an earthquake killed tens of thousands of people, the military said.

Major General Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, said soldiers rescued the polio-stricken baby from the debris in the village of Sanger, near Balakot, a town in North West Frontier Province that was flattened by the quake.

“She is absolutely fine,” Sultan said. He did not know the age of the baby.

Two brothers of the girl led soldiers to the house where she was trapped. The boys, aged seven and nine-years-old, arrived at an army camp to ask for help on Saturday and were carrying a seven-month-old sister.

“They’re the real heroes,” Sultan said. “They said their house is destroyed, their parents are dead and nobody is alive in their locality.”

He said there was still hope, however remote, of finding survivors.