Hope of more quake survivors as girl pulled from wreckage

RESCUERS held out hope of finding more survivors today, nearly five days after a powerful earthquake ravaged China's Sichuan province, as authorities prepared for the daunting task of housing and feeding the millions left homeless.

Buoyed by finding a girl alive after 100 hours trapped in a school following Monday's massive quake, government leaders, including President Hu Jintao, said they would not give up hope of finding others.

Officials have said the earthquake's final death toll could reach 50,000.

More than a day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding survivors, rescuers pulled to safety a ten-year-old girl who had been trapped under her collapsed primary school for 100 hours.

A dozen pupils had been rescued from the school. Medical teams were treating the girl, described as looking like a dusty rag doll when she was pulled out of the wreckage, missing a shoe and with a white cloth tied over her face to protect her from the blinding light after being in darkness for so long.

Rescue teams recovered 163 people alive yesterday.

The vast majority of survivors are rescued in the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival dropping with each passing day after.