Rescue teams found the woman in the city of Suzu in Ishikawa Prefecture on Saturday evening – 124 hours after the earthquake hit – and transported her to a nearby hospital, according to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, as reported by the BBC.
On Sunday, a doctor told reporters that the woman is well enough to engage in conversations, but her legs are injured. Kume Takanori, a member of the emergency rescue team, told NHK that the woman’s knees were trapped under furniture within a very narrow space between the first and second floors. It took hours to free her, Takanori said.
The magnitude 7.5 earthquake that hit central Japan on January 1 triggered tsunami warnings as far as eastern Russia.
Thousands of people living in coastal areas were forced to evacuate their homes as buildings and roads collapsed.
The death toll from the natural disaster is at least 126, according to the latest figures published by Japanese authorities on Saturday.
