Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) A South Korean woman in her 50s thanked rescuers and medical personnel for saving her after being trapped inside a partially collapsed building for more than nine hours following a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that hit Hualien County in eastern Taiwan late Tuesday.

The 58-year-old woman, surnamed Kim (金), was rescued from the Yun Men Tsui Ti commercial/residential building (雲門翠堤大樓) in downtown Hualien at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

According to Kim's account, she was scrolling through her phone on the couch at around midnight when the earthquake hit.

In a few seconds, the whole room sank, Kim said, so she stayed on the couch and waited to be rescued.

Kim said she kept screaming but no one came for a long time.

Using her phone she called Taiwanese friends for help, telling them that she was in the fifth apartment on the ninth floor.

However, the tilt of the partially collapsed building made it difficult for the disaster response team to reach her and Kim said she was told when they did that the ninth floor was now on the level previously occupied by the first or second floors of the building.



Kim held up a crucifix while being interviewed at the hospital and attributed her rescue to God.

(By Worthy Shen, Wang Chao-yu and Kuan-lin Liu)
Enditem/AW
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