Rescuers on Wednesday extricated a woman who had been trapped in a tunnel in a hydropower plant construction site for nine days since the May 12 earthquake in southwest China.

Cui Changhui, 35, was rescued at 2:30 p.m. from the water diversion tunnel in Shifang, Sichuan Province.

Accompanied by medical workers, she was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

Pu Jinhui, a doctor who tended her, said she suffered multiple fractures in her right arm, ribs and lower back, but her injuries were not life-threatening.

Cui lived on two apples and a pear which her trapped colleagues left her before they went out of the tunnel to search food. She was found alive on Sunday when one of her surviving colleague Li Jun trekked back to send food to her.

"I had thought she would have died," Li told Xinhua on telephone. "Unexpectedly, she was still alive!"

Cui was perhaps the survivor to have been rescued after being trapped for the longest time so far since the May 12 massive quake which jolted Sichuan Province.

A total of 40,854 people have been confirmed dead in Sichuan alone in the 8.0-magnitude quake. The quake also affected other provinces. The death toll nationwide was 41,353 as of noon on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2008)