Girl to lose legs to free her from quake rubble

By John Ruwitch and Bobby Yip

HANWANG, China (Reuters) - Chinese teenager Yang Liu lay alive but buried under the rubble of her school on Wednesday, knowing that the only way she will survive is if she loses her legs.

Yang has been fed, given water and a white helmet as workers remove ruins brick by brick from around her and a crane pulled away slabs of concrete -- the remains of the school that parents said had around 800 students before Monday's quake hit.

Rescuers took a photojournalist to where Yang was trapped, before rushing his photos, along with Yang's mother, to the local hospital, where surgeons studied them in preparation.

She could be saved, but she would lose her legs.

"They are preparing to do surgery now, but the level of difficulty is very high," said one rescue worker.

Rescuers had deemed it too dangerous to move the concrete to free her legs.

"They decided that they can't move any of the rubble from on top of her, because it might bring more down on her," said Wang Jue, a Chinese journalist.

"So to save her life, they'll cut off her legs. She's calm and stable," he said.