Ruins Yield Survivor 9 1/2 Days After S. Korean Store Collapse

SEOUL —  Rescuers pulled a 21-year-old student from the rubble of a Seoul department store this morning after he managed to cling to life for 9 1/2 days.

Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. television pictures showed 21-year-old Choi Myong Sok being carried by stretcher to an ambulance and rushed to a nearby hospital.

He was conscious throughout the nearly two-hour rescue from a one-cubic-yard hole in the rubble and was able to speak to his rescuers as he was carried to the ambulance, his head covered by a towel to protect him from the light.

On arrival at the hospital, he was fit enough to answer questions.

“I wanted to talk to somebody. There was no one to speak to,” Choi told reporters in the emergency room.

Doctors said that Choi, who worked part time in the collapsed store, was in good condition.

“He was badly dehydrated, but his blood pressure, his pulse and his state of mind were all very good. He had very few injuries,” a doctor who attended Choi told MBC.

The doctor quoted Choi as saying he managed to stay alive by drinking rainwater that dripped through the ruins of the store.

Rescue workers had nearly given up hope of finding any more survivors in the wreckage of the Sampoong Department Store, where more than 400 people are feared to have been killed after the store collapsed without warning June 29.

The last time a survivor was found alive was last Sunday, but she died in a hospital two hours later.

“As we tried to cut through a concrete slab, we heard a cry of someone saying, ‘Help, I’m alive!’ ” rescue worker Han Sang Kyu told reporters.

Choi’s father, Choi Bong Yol, speaking from the disaster site, said: “I feel as if I am flying.

“I had 50% expected he was alive and 50% given up hope,” the elder Choi told reporters.

Torrential rain has badly hampered the rescue since the weekend began. The official death toll from the disaster now stands at 150, with more than 250 bodies not yet recovered.