Rescuers on Wednesday extricated a woman who had been trapped in a tunnel in a hydropower plant construction site for nine days since the May 12 earthquake in southwest China.

Cui Changhui, 35, was rescued from the water diversion tunnel Shifang, Sichuan Province, near the epicenter of the 8.0-magnitude quake.

Accompanied by medical workers, she was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

Pu Jinhui, a doctor who tended her, said she suffered multiple fractures in her right arm, ribs and lower back.

Her injuries were not life-threatening, said Pu.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)