Survivor Is Rescued From Rubble of Australian Slide

Rescuers on Saturday miraculously plucked a survivor from a concrete tomb beneath the rubble of a 3-day-old landslide at a ski village in New South Wales.

Ski instructor Stuart Diver escaped serious injury and was said to be in high spirits after his rescue from deep within the wreckage of two ski lodges engulfed in Wednesday night’s landslide at Thredbo village.

But as Diver was treated for frostbite at a hospital in nearby Canberra late Saturday, rescuers unearthed more bodies from the mangled heap of concrete, twisted metal, dirt and splintered trees at Thredbo, southwest of Sydney. Nine bodies have been found.

So far, Diver is the only survivor of 20 people buried when the side of a mountain in this tiny ski hamlet gave way, dropping uprooted trees and tons of earth onto two ski lodges where tourists and resort workers had been sleeping.

Of those caught in the slide, 17 were Australians, two Americans and one a New Zealander. None of the bodies has been identified by authorities yet. Still missing in the debris is Diver’s wife, Sally.

Diver “is lucid, and he is in good spirits and he was even joking with some of the rescue workers,” helicopter co-pilot Paul Newland told reporters in Canberra after flying the survivor to the hospital.

Canberra Hospital’s emergency specialist, Dr. Bob Dunn, said Diver might need surgery for frostbite.

Diver, described by friends and police as a survival expert and fitness fanatic, spent about 64 hours sandwiched between thick slabs of concrete in a cramped air pocket 35 feet beneath the surface for three freezing nights.

Diver is expected to remain in the hospital for at least a few days for “extensive treatment,” Dunn said.