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Chennai building collapse death toll mounts to 43

CHENNAI: Around 9am on Monday, the third day after a 12-storey building collapsed in Porur, National Disaster Response Force sniffer dog Rustam stood by a small hole on a concrete slab, barking. And his master knew what it meant: Another survivor below the rubble, almost 64 hours after the accident.The rescue team got cracking immediately, employing life detectors, cutters and cameras to pinpoint where the life throbbed under sheets of concrete. Eight hours later emerged a young man in a yellow T-shirt. His first words to the rescuers: "Where are my slippers?" NDRF commandant M K Verma politely told him that he would get him a new pair of footwear. The man identified himself: "Vikas Kumar, 29, from Orissa." Kumar gulped down a bottle of water someone offered, splashed some on his face and remained almost transfixed looking heavenward. Emblazed on his T shirt were the words 'Let your heart make your choice. BE INSANE.' Deliriously insane it was for those around to see the man walk as if nothing had happened. As if to live beyond 72 hours under twisted steel and mortar was his choice. It boosted the morale of the rescue team. They would take this one tale home.Eight hours ago, hope was wrestling with despair when Rustam barked incessantly. Inserting life detectors and cameras through the hole, they found a person trapped in an air pocket three feet below the lowest visible concrete slab. But reaching the survivor was tough, as moving the rubble could endanger his life. They kept chipping at the concrete till the opening was made wide enough to establish contact with the people underneath.At 11.30, they heard a man shouting. The team kept a conversation going with him to keep him conscious and bring down his anxiety. "He said he was on the second floor of the building when it collapsed. He was worried about his friends who were with him at the time of the accident," said NDRF deputy inspector general S P Selvan.At 1.30, a doctor inserted a tube to feed him. He finished two bottles of glucose in no time. "He needs more," the doctor said. After working gently with concrete cutters, at 3.30pm a rescuer made the first physical contact with him-a handshake. Less than two hours later, Kumar was pulled out. "Asking for his footwear, and then finding around him signs of the disaster, he was initially confused, then shocked," said the NDRF commandant.By 5.15pm, Vikas Kumar was whisked away to a hospital. A quick group photo to celebrate yet another life saved and the NDRF team was back at work.