5 Found Alive in Thai Hotel

Hours after giving up hope of finding more survivors, rescue workers late Monday discovered five women alive three days after they were trapped in the rubble of a collapsed hotel.

Working under floodlights, rescue teams dug a tunnel to the women through concrete and steel. But they were unable to free the women, two of whom were described as very weak.

The women were given food, water and soft drinks, and oxygen was pumped into the tunnel through plastic tubes.

The mother of one of the women went to the edge of the tunnel and, shaking and out of breath, shouted, “Mother is here!”

Earlier Monday, authorities had ruled out finding more survivors and began using cranes and bulldozers to remove debris from the six-story Royal Plaza Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima, 130 miles northeast of Bangkok.

But sifting by hand resumed when the five survivors were found in a conference room where almost 120 teachers had been meeting when the hotel caved in Friday. More than 100 people were killed and 225 injured in the collapse.

The government center coordinating the rescue operation said 50 to 60 people remain missing.

There also was a report over a rescuer’s radio that a man may be alive in another area of the rubble. The spot was close to an intact wing of the hotel that has been tilting dangerously.