BEIJING – It’s enough to make you dig out your 10-year-old brick of a cellphone. Liu Quanming, 70, can thank his trusty Nokia's battery for saving his life after he was separated from a hiking party on June 20 and got stuck in a Taiwanese ravine for five days, police said.

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“Liu lagged behind the rest of his hiking group and then get lost,” said Xie Tinglong, a police inspector in Taichung in western Taiwan. “He soon lost his way, slipped and fell down the mountain into the ravine below.” The resident of Keelong City was separated from his decade-old phone, but it survived the tumble and still received calls. About 250 police officers were reportedly sent out to search for Liu, but rescuers eventually triangulated his location from the phone’s signal. Searchers finally heard Liu’s phone ringing last Wednesday and found him lying nearby. Doctors at Taichung Metro Harbor Hospital declined to comment on his condition, but police said he had suffered superficial scratches.

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- Ed Flanagan