Boy survives 2 days buried alive in snowdrift

10-year-old Andrei Yakovlev has had a very lucky escape after spending almost two days buried alive in snow in the far-eastern city of Petrapavlovsk-Kamchatskiy (Kamchatka peninsula). The boy has been taken to the intensive care ward of the regional children’s hospital, ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Friday, April 26. According to the chief surgeon of the hospital Alexader Tsitalovsky, the boy’s hands and feet are severely frostbitten, though he is recovering gradually.

Andrei had been missing since Tuesday, but a search operation carried out by local police brought no results. Throughout that time the boy was literally entombed in a 2-meter-long snow tunnel that he had dug out with his own hands. According to the boy, he was trapped inside after a snowplough blocked the entrance to the tunnel with a heap of snow.

The child’s weak cries for help were eventually heard by an assistant at a nearby flower kiosk. The woman asked a passing man for help and together they pulled the boy from the snowdrift.

In the doctor’s opinion, the boy survived primarily because he had some space to move around. But in the first hours following his rescue from his icy captivity, his condition was considered critical. The boy’s life is now no longer in danger.

ITAR-TASS