
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 17, 1993                   TAG: 9308170068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KORAT, THAILAND                                LENGTH: Short

5 FOUND ALIVE IN HOTEL RUBBLE

Hours after giving up hope of finding more survivors, rescue workers discovered five women alive late Monday after three days trapped in the wreckage 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 who 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 Korat, 130 miles northeast of Bangkok.

But sifting by hand resumed when five survivors were found in a conference room where almost 120 teachers had been meeting when the hotel caved in Friday. At least 95 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.

by CNB