Girl Rescued From Rubble in Pakistan

Pakistani soldiers pulled a 6-year-old girl alive from the rubble of her home more than a week after a deadly earthquake, officials said Tuesday.

Taj-un-Nisa was rescued Monday, nine days after the quake struck her village near the town of Balakot.

The Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir and the nation’s North-West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the quake, and the official death toll is now at least 42,000, with independent estimates much higher. An additional 1,300 people died in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir.

This morning, strong aftershocks rocked northern Pakistan, but there were no immediate reports of more deaths or injuries.

A magnitude 5.8 quake caused landslides and sent people into the streets. A shock of magnitude 5.6 followed.

“I can see some landslides ... in the nearby mountains,” Lt. Col. Saeed Iqbal said in Balakot.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said Taj-un-Nisa’s parents had asked soldiers to search for her under the rubble of their house in Sakin Kunda village, not knowing whether she was alive.

Sultan said a soldier found her under the debris.

“She survived because she was stuck under a cupboard which made some space for her,” he said.

The girl had a minor head injury, said Dr. Ijaz Nazir at a field hospital in Balakot.