Rescuers strain for sounds of life under rubble

Rescuers gathered near collapsed buildings in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, in China yesterday. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

BEICHUAN, China - "What floor were you on?" Five taps. "How many are you?" Eight taps. Then, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Buried underneath seven stories of rubble, 72 hours after Monday's massive earthquake, there were sounds of life. The taps came from the bottom of what had once been a school that slid down a slope and was buried under a onetime grocery store.

Dozens of soldiers arrived soon after the discovery and began planning how to dig the survivors out. To do it safely would take hours, they reasoned, and they would need heavy equipment to move the tower of concrete, bricks, and wood.

"But they will die. That's too long," said one of the soldiers.

A local man helping with the rescue volunteered to try to wriggle in underneath the rubble to see if he could pull anyone out. But as he shined a flashlight into the open crevice of twisted metal, he saw no movement.

Small tremors periodically shook the ground. This kind of rescue was too dangerous, the soldiers' commander determined, and there was little hope of getting heavy equipment anywhere near this valley of collapsed buildings.

As the soldiers planned, villagers walked through in a desperate search for their loved ones. One man walked on broken slabs of what had been an apartment building, blowing a whistle and putting his ear to the rubble for any reply. Another man called a name, over and over. After hundreds of cries, he hunched down, buried his head, and sobbed.

Another man stood clasping a plastic bag of photographs in his hands, tears in his eyes as he stood silently and gazed at the pile of bricks and wires that had been a kindergarten where his wife taught. There were no signs of life in this pile.

A soldier from an army hospital said at least 80 people had been rescued in Beichuan yesterday, 60 of them students. Five people were seen being carried away on stretchers through the ruins of the town, which used to have a population of 40,000. They walked over a dirt trail for about half a mile until they reached a road where waiting ambulances took the wounded away.

Dozens of villagers also trudged along the path, many giving up hope of finding their families.

After about two hours of discussion, soldiers got word on their radio that more children were alive in the rubble of a school farther down the valley. Since they could confirm only one person alive in this place, they left some bottles of water and six army hospital paramedics and moved out to try to rescue those at the school.

Several local men who had been watching the scene scrambled down the valley walls and began moving rocks and pieces of wood to see whether they could get a water bottle to the person trapped underneath. In all the noise, it was unclear whether there were any more taps.