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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995                   TAG: 9507110112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA                                LENGTH: Short

4 MORE SURVIVORS REPORTED IN SEOUL

Rescuers found four more survivors under the rubble of a shopping mall nearly 111/2 days after the building caved in on more than 1,000 people, a news report said Tuesday. Yonhap Television News reported that rescue workers using sound detectors found the survivors in a pocket in the basement level at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday local time.

One of the survivors was believed to be female, the report said.

The death toll stood at 199 early Tuesday, and more than 220 others remained unaccounted for from the Sampoong Department Store disaster.

After heavy downpours forced a temporary delay in rescue efforts Monday, U.S. military experts searched with sound detectors in what had been a five-story wing of the shopping complex.

Before the most recent four, the latest survivor found, Choi Myong-suk, a 21-year-old part-time sales clerk, was rescued alive in the remains of the basement Sunday.

Choi said he survived in a 4-foot-wide pocket on a trickle of rainwater and by eating cardboard. Doctors said he was in ``miraculously good health.''

Rescue workers were encouraged because Choi was found where it appeared there was no chance of life.

Choi was found by chance. A rescue worker, digging through a concrete slab with a power drill, heard a faint voice appealing for help: ``Save me. Please save me. Water. Quickly.''

Shoddy construction and disregard of safety standards were blamed for the cave-in June 29. In addition to the dead and missing, more than 900 people were injured.

by CNB