Teenage boy saved from under Nepal rubble 5 days after earthquake

On Thursday, rescue workers and onlookers in Kathmandu, Nepal, got a rare piece of good news: Almost five days exactly after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, a teenage boy had been pulled from the rubble alive. The boy — Pema Lama, 15, according to Reuters; Pemba Tamang, 18, according to The Associated Press — had spent 144 hours trapped under the pancaked, water-logged ruins of the seven-story Kathmandu Hilton, saved by luck and his motorcycle.

"He thanked me when I first approached him," police officer L.B. Basnet told AP, noting that the boy was surprisingly sharp when he crawled down toward him. "He told me his name, his address, and I gave him some water. I assured him we were near to him." When the Nepalese, French, and American rescue workers pulled the teenager out on a stretcher, a large crowd cheered. But officials say the chance of finding other survivors is slim. BBC News has this report on the dramatic, improbable rescue:

The official death toll from the earthquake has now hit 5,489 in Nepal, and more than 80 people died in nearby Tibet and India.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up