Man claims to have survived three weeks in rubble

Pakistan’s top army spokesman today claimed that a 26-year-old man has been pulled alive from the rubble of his quake-ruined home in northern Pakistan more than three weeks after South Asia’s massive earthquake, but a doctor treating the man said he doubted such a tale could be possible.

Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said the man, Saeed-ur Rehman, was rescued by army troops yesterday – 23 days after the October 8 quake – from beneath his shattered home in the isolated Alai Valley in North West Frontier Province.