Grandmother survives 3 days in quake ruins

ISLAMABAD - A 75-year-old Pakistani grandmother and her daughter were pulled alive from the wreckage of an Islamabad apartment block on Tuesday, more than three days after a massive earthquake devastated northern Pakistan.

Pakistanis working with a British rescue team cried out "God is Great, God is Great" once it became clear Maha Bibi and her 55-year-old daughter Khalida Begum were safe -- though it took 16 hours to get the women out of the small pocket of space where they were crouched.

"I'm so sorry to put you through all this trouble," Begum told her rescuer, John Holland of Rapid-UK, a British emergency service team.

Both women were taken to a nearby hospital, where x-rays confirmed neither had suffered any broken bones, though they had been living on the first floor of a multi-storey block.

Bibi's son Mahmood Tariq Khan said his grandmother had told the rescuers she did not want to be freed unless they could confirm four of her kin were safe.

"For 72 hours we prepared for a funeral. Everybody came to offer their condolences, then the news came that they are alive. They are both alive," said Khan.

Nationwide the official death toll stands at 23,000, but political leaders in the hardest hit areas of North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-held Kashmir say it is likely to end up closer to 40,000.

Pictures of the Margala Towers apartment block's collapse were seen on newscasts worldwide, and were the first images seen of the earthquake's deadly power.

One block in the Margala Towers, a residential complex favoured by Pakistanis and expatriates, completely caved in while several upper floors of another collapsed.

At least 33 people are confirmed dead, and close to 40 are believed to be still missing, including several foreigners.

- REUTERS