28 Jan 2010

Girl pulled from rubble 15 days after Haiti quake

10:39 pm on 28 January 2010

A girl has been pulled out of the rubble in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, a full 15 days after the earthquake struck, rescuers say.

Darlene Etienne, 16, was said to be happy but dehydrated. Rescuers said she had survived by drinking water from a bath, the BBC reports.

Her rescue comes five days after Haitian government officially ended the search and rescue operation.

Meanwhile, President Rene Preval has said parliamentary elections due to be held on 28 February will be postponed.

As many as 200,000 people died in the 7.0-magnitude quake on 12 January. More than 130 people have been pulled alive from the rubble.

A rescue worker described the discovery of Darlene Etienne, two weeks after the quake destroyed the city, as a "miracle".

She was found in the rubble of a house near the College St Gerard, which one of her relatives said she had just started attending.

On Tuesday, rescuers discovered a 31-year-old man who had been trapped for 12 days after being caught in one of the numerous aftershocks that rocked the city after the earthquake.