Osaka - Two survivors – an elderly woman and her teenaged grandson – were rescued from the wreckage of a home in north-east Japan on Sunday, nine days after a massive earthquake and tsunami.
The story of survival provided welcome good news as the death toll from the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster continued to climb, with the number of confirmed dead and missing are well over 25 000.
“An 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy were found under debris,” said a police spokesman in the devastated coastal city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture.
“Their temperatures were quite low but they were conscious. Details of their condition are not immediately known. They have been rescued and sent to hospital.”
Sumi Abe and her grandson Jin Abe were in the kitchen when the 9-magnitude quake struck off Japan’s coast, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The house collapsed with them inside, but the teen was able to reach food from the refrigerator, helping the pair to survive for more than a week.
He fed his grandmother yoghurt, Coca-Cola and water, local reports said.
The boy was said to be shivering and with no feeling in one leg when he was rescued.
To protect themselves from the bitter cold that followed the disaster, the grandson took some blankets, which were miraculously not wet from the tsunami, and stayed close to his grandmother to keep warm.
There have been few other miracle rescues.
Troops announced on Saturday they had found a man thought to have survived for eight days in a half-destroyed house in the disaster zone, but it later turned out he was actually an evacuee who had simply returned to his home.
Freezing temperatures and snow have hampered rescue operations.
Miyagi prefecture was worst hit by the quake and tsunami, with a confirmed death toll of 4 882. – Sapa-AFP