A 46-year-old survivor from Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southwest China had lived on cigarettes, paper napkins and his urine when he was buried in the rubble in the past four days.

Peng Zhijun, who was pulled out of debris alive Friday afternoon in Beichuan county of Sichuan Province, was still sober-minded almost 100 hours after the quake.

Doctors said he suffered bone fractures in the left arm and slight injuries in the legs, but the other parts of his body were basically in good condition.

"Natural disasters cannot be avoided. I had to save myself," Peng told reporters Friday evening while lying on a stretcher at the Mianyang City Center Hospital.

He recalled that he was buried in a collapsed building near a pharmaceutical company in Beichuan Monday afternoon when the earthquake occurred, and he could not move freely under the pressure of debris, except his right arm.

"I first untied my girdle, and used it to tie my injured left arm to my head so as to relive pains," he said. "Then, I started thinking about how to eat and drink."

"I searched all over by pockets and only found half a pack of cigarettes and a few pieces of paper napkins," he said. "I broke the cigarettes into pieces and ate the powder. After the cigarettes were eaten up, I turned to the paper napkins."

"Besides, I had to drink my urine," he said. "I managed to take off one of my shoes and used it to collect my urine."

Peng said that he had tried many times to arouse rescuers' attention by hitting a collapsed wall with his right arm in the past days but failed. Almost 100 hours passed, he was finally found by rescuers.

"They were very excited to see me still alive, so was I, and I cried so loudly," he said.

Peng recalled that more than 10 people had been buried beside him in the rubble. "At the very beginning, they were all alive. But unfortunately, they died one after another."

"I had encouraged some of them to drink their urine. But they did not listen."

Three other survivors, including two men and a woman, were saved Friday afternoon along with Peng. They had done what Peng told them to do.

"So long as you persist in your belief, you can have one more minute for survival and one more chance of being rescued," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)