Heroic rescuers racing against time(2)

The old woman collapsed at the scene, screaming while neighbors stepped in trying to comfort her.

"She kept talking and nobody knew what she was saying, we had only six rescuers and had to save the baby's mother," Xie said.

The mother was in coma when being pulled out of the debris, according to Xie. Doctors said the mother is likely to recover, which gave the old woman a ray of hope.

Rescuers are racing against time to find as many survivors as possible in Ya'an as the "critical first 72 hours after the disaster" ends in nine hours.

Xie and his fellow firefighters have finished their work in Wuxing village and more rescue operations will be carried out in other villages.

However, the rescue operation is hampered by huge queues of traffic clogging roads into disaster zones.

"I have been busy rescuing, and not had a minute to think about life and death," Xie said, lighting up a cigarette.

As of 6 p.m. Monday, the quake had claimed at least 192 lives and injured more than 10,000. An additional 23 people were missing.

Special report: 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolts Ya'an