A MAN buried alive under hundreds of tons of concrete in a quake-hit city has been saved by firemen from East Lancashire.

It is believed the victim had been trapped in the collapsed block of flats in Muzaffarabad for more than 30 hours. He was dragged to safety late on Sunday just hours after the Lancashire team arrived inPakistan.

And it emerged today that the firefighters had rescued more victims in the last 24 hours. A rescue team spokesman said: "Satellite communications have been poor today, however the rescue teams remain heavily committed in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad. "Successful rescues have taken place in both locations and morale remains high with the prospect of further rescues still to be made.

"Personnel have worked through the previous night and during today undertaking many primary searches and a few rescues."

The four East Lancs firemen are part of a 10-man team from the county sent to the epicentre of the devastating earthquake to help in the massive rescue effort.

There were reports early today that the team had pulled more people from the debris of Margala Towers in the Kashmir capital.

It has been confirmed that they have already managed to free one man with assistance from other members of the UK Fire Service Search and Rescue Team - a national crack rescue squad.

He was pulled from a building which had collapsed in Saturday's earthquake, trapping and killing many of its inhabitants.

The team of Lancashire firefighters were transported to the city by helicopter after landing safely in Islamabad on Sunday afternoon and began rescue efforts.

The group includes Andy Barnes, who works on Blue watch at Blackburn fire station; Dave Widdup, from Darwen, based at Blackburn Fire Station; Mark Southworth, also based at Blackburn; and Darren Hudson, who lives in Clitheroe and works at Hyndburn Fire Station.

All four of the East Lancashire men have experience of rescue operations in earthquake-hit areas after being part of a group sent to Algeria in 2003 to deal with what was described as the country's "worst earthquake in two decades".

Andy Barnes was also part of a three-man team from East Lancashire which visited the state of Gujarat, in 2001, in the wake of the 7.7 Richter scale earthquake which killed more than 30,000 people and left almost double that homeless, as well as helping out in Turkey in 1999 when two earthquakes struck and in Armenia the year before after a large earthquake brought devastation.

John Taylor of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Andy in particular has had a lot of experience in finding people trapped in earthquakes and floods. The team, who arrived in Kashmir on Sunday, have already got a man out alive and in good shape which is great news although it took about three hours.

"They didn't stop for a rest having rescued someone and they ended up working right through the night. The problem will be getting rest themselves because time is obviously an issue in rescuing people alive.

"They have been sent initially for a week but this will be reviewed once we know what the situation is."

Chief Fire Officer of the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Peter Holland added: "The mobilisation of UK Firefighters has gone extremely well, with a speed of response which gives us the best possible opportunity to find people alive. Our team has a wealth of experience of working in the aftermath of earthquakes of this magnitude, with a number of our team involved in rescue effort following the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001."

A 34-year-old paramedic from Longridge, who works for Lancashire Ambulance Service, has also been deployed to Pakistan.

Simon Watson said: "We have been involved in the rescue operation since we arrived and I've probably had about an hours rest. We have managed to find and pull three people alive from a collapsed 12-storey building, using methods such as sound location and using thermal imaging cameras.

"The first thing that hit me was how hot it is which makes it even harder to work. The local people are extremely helpful and we are directing them in how to find as many people as possible.

"As long as we think there is a possibility of people still being alive we are going to carry on."