Six-year-old boy pulled alive from rubble of Indonesia quake

Rescuers in Indonesia have pulled a six-year-old boy from the rubble of his collapsed house in Cianjur, after he survived the earthquake because he was protected by a mattress, Qazet.az reports.

The boy, named Azka Maulana Malik, had been trapped for two days and was found alive next to the body of his dead grandmother.

He appeared calm as he was lifted to safety by the rescue team in a video that was shared online by the local fire department.

“(Azka) is fine now, not wounded. The doctor said he’s only weak because he’s hungry,” said relative Salman Alfarisi, as he held Azka’s hand at a tent set up outside the quake-damaged hospital.

The 22-year-old said the boy’s mother had been killed in Monday’s quake.

“He wants to go home now. He’s been asking for his mother while sleeping.”

The death toll from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the west of the densely-populated Java island now stands at 271, but authorities expect that number to rise because some remote areas have yet to be reached and heavy rain has hampered rescue efforts. About 40 people remain missing and more than 2,000 are injured.