Girl pulled from Sichuan quake rubble after 43 hours

DUJIANGYAN, China, May 14 -- A three-year-old girl was rescued on Wednesday after spending more than 40 hours under the rubble of a collapsed building in what China's state media hailed as a "magical" earthquake survival tale.

However, she apparently survived because she had been protected by the bodies of her parents who died in Monday's disaster, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The girl, Song Xinyi, suffered serious leg injuries but was able to talk when she was hauled out of the many layers of rubble on Wednesday morning, 43 hours after the 7.9-magnitude quake struck southwest China's Sichuan province.

"She explained the three Chinese characters that made up her name, and told everybody she loved painting and watching TV. Despite a coin-sized wound on her forehead, she still looked pretty," Xinhua reported.

Rescuers found her on Tuesday morning, but were unable to get her out of the rubble immediately. So they gave her food and milk and sheltered her from heavy rain as they cleared the rubble, according to Xinhua.

Song was in one of the collapsed buildings in Beichuan county, where up to 5,000 people are believed to have died in the quake.

Across Sichuan and neighbouring regions, the death toll has soared above 20,000.

Amid such misery, Chinese media have been desperate for some good stories and Xinhua said Song had "magically survived under the dead bodies of her parents".

Premier Wen Jiabao, who was in Beichuan on Wednesday as part of his efforts to oversee rescue work, met Song before she was sent to hospital, Xinhua said.

(Agencies)