Miracle Rescue Lifts Hopes for 3,000 Trapped in Quake

Rescue teams racing to find earthquake survivors in Indonesia pulled a young woman alive from the rubble of a collapsed school today, a rare glimmer of hope in the 2-day-old search. More than 1,000 people are reported dead, and difficult conditions in Padang are making it hard to reach the remaining victims. Estimates say 3,000 are still trapped, notes the BBC.

A section of Padang's main hospital collapsed during the quake, and relief workers have had to operate in tents and bring bodies to an open-air morgue. The Indonesian president has arrived on the scene, and teams from the UK and Australia are scheduled to reach the city later today. "Padang city and environs are bad, but once you go outside into the surrounding rural areas, the situation is very seriously grave," said a Red Cross official.
(More Indonesia stories.)