Man Who Survived China Earthquake Was Buried for 10 Days in 1976 Quake

BEIJING – A survivor of last week's massive earthquake in China lived through an even worse disaster more than 30 years ago, a newspaper reported Friday.

Taoqi, 60, from China's ethnic Daur minority, was in an office building when it collapsed during the May 12 quake in Sichuan province that killed more than 55,000 people and left 5 million homeless, The Nanjing Morning Post said. He was the only person in the building to survive, the report said.

The report identified Taoqi with only one name.

In 1976, Taoqi survived an earthquake in Tangshan city that killed at least 240,000 people. In that disaster, he was trapped under a pile of bricks for 10 days before being rescued, the paper reported.

"I heard big sounds, and the desks started to shake," Taoqi was quoted as saying of the 1976 quake. "When I realized that it was an earthquake, it was too late to run off."

The story ran with the headline "Legend!"

Originally from Jilin province in northeast China, Taoqi moved to Beichuan — a district badly damaged by last week's tremor — in 1989. He has been a scout in the army as well as a coal miner.

The report did not give any other details.