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Man survived 11 days by sipping soda

French rescue workers pulled a 24-year-old man alive from the rubble of a hotel in Haiti on Saturday, 11 days after an earthquake devastated much of the country.

Wismond Jean-Pierre, who had no visible injuries but was severely dehydrated, was immediately loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital for treatment.

Lt. Col. Christophe Renou, a rescuer with the French team, called the three-hour effort "a miracle" as he was briefly overcome with emotion. Other members of the team -- assisted by American and Greek workers -- were seen weeping with joy following the rescue.

"This is God," Frank Louvier, the chief of the French rescue team, said as he pointed to the sky.

The man's brothers said they reported hearing tapping from within the ruins of the Hotel Napoli Inn for several days but struggled to get authorities to the scene. A Greek journalist said he alerted Greek rescue workers after hearing the tapping for himself.

His brother said Jean-Pierre was a clerk at a store in the hotel. He said Jean-Pierre searched in the dark and found a soda, taking little sips at a time during the 11 days he was trapped.

In video shot by French Civil Protection, Jean-Pierre is seen wriggling out of an opening in the rubble no wider than his shoulders, a big smile on his face as he sees his rescuers for the first time.

Renou said Jean-Pierre was found in a pocket in the rubble and was able to move all of his extremities. A doctor who examined him said Jean-Pierre was protected by a desk.

Renou said Jean-Pierre did not say much when he was pulled out but indicated that there were three or four people around him when the building collapsed. However, Jean-Pierre told rescuers he had not heard any sounds around him for a couple of days. Workers were going into the rubble with radar equipment to check for any other possible survivors.

The emotional rescue came a day after the Haitian government said that more than 111,000 people died in last week's earthquake.

It is the worst death toll from an earthquake since the 2004 Asian tsunami and the second-highest death toll from an earthquake in more than three decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Meanwhile Saturday, much of Haiti was mourning as rescue operations turned into recovery missions and the country's president attended the funeral of an archbishop who was one of the victims.

A Mexican rescue team pulled the body of 63-year-old Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot from ruins near the national cathedral, which he oversaw as archbishop of Port-au-Prince. The cathedral was destroyed.

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