(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-15 22:35

MIANYANG, Sichuan  -- A teenage girl has told how she and her classmates sang pop songs together as they lay trapped and injured in the ruins of their high school after the massive earthquake in southwest China on Monday.

Li Anning, 16, was trapped for 40 hours in the rubble of the collapsed five-storey school building before People's Liberation Army soldiers rescued her.

The senior high first grader at Beichuan No.1 Middle School told the Beijing News newspaper how her class was in the middle of a geography lesson when the tremors began.

"Our classroom on the fourth floor began to shake suddenly and within no time, the fifth, the fourth and third floors all collapsed together," said Li.

Through the dim light, Li saw the white shirt of a boy classmate, Li Yuanfeng, who was lying nearby.

"I grabbed one of Yuanfeng's hands, calling out to him, but he didn't respond. In the beginning, I could feel the warmth of his hand, but soon it cooled," said Li.

Li was unable to move and began calling out the names of her classmates one by one. Three girls who had been friends with Li lay not far away, but she could not reach them.

After about 10 hours trapped in the debris, other teenagers started to shout out and then began talking to each other.

"We have to keep going so we can get through this," one teenager said.

Li said she could not remember who started, but the trapped students later began to sing pop songs, waiting patiently for rescuers to help them.

"One line from Michael Wong's 'Fairytale' song, which goes 'Let's write our ending together' gave us strength and confidence, " she said.

Li recalled screaming with the tremendous pain of being pulled from the ruins on Wednesday and carried by stretcher to safety.

She is being treated at the Mianyang City Central Hospital.

Beichuan No.1 Middle School in Mianyang City was about 160 kilometers northeast of the epicenter in Wenchuan County.

The main building of the school collapsed when the quake hit at about 2:30 p.m., burying 1,000 students and teachers. Only a few have been saved so far

Beichuan, in the southwestern Sichuan Province, was one of the areas hardest hit by the 7.8-magnitude quake, China's worst in three decades.