MORONI (Comoros) - DESPITE a fractured collarbone, a teenage girl clung to the wreckage of a plane for more than 13 hours before rescuers found her floating in the Indian Ocean, authorities said Wednesday. She is the only known survivor of the crash.

The Yemenia Airbus 310 jet was carrying 153 people when it went down in howling winds early Tuesday in the sea north of the Comoros Islands.

A reporter saw 14-year-old Bahia Bakari in a Comoros hospital on Wednesday as she was visited by government officials.

She was conscious with bruises on her face and gauze bandages on her right elbow and right foot.

Her hair was pulled back and she was covered by a blue blanket but she gamely shook the hand of Alain Joyandet, France's minister for international cooperation.

Her uncle, Joseph Yousouf, said Bahia also had a fracture on her collarbone.

'It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl,' Mr Joyandet said, adding that Miss Bahia held onto a piece of the plane from 1:30 am Tuesday to 3:00 pm, then signaled a passing boat, which rescued her.

'She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength,' he said. 'She is physically out of danger, she is evidently very traumatized.'

The girl was traveling with her mother, who is feared dead. They had left Paris on Monday night to see family in the Comoros.

'She's asking for her mother,' Mr Yousouf told the reporters. For fear of upsetting Miss Bahia, Mr Yousouf told her that her mother is in the room next door.

The girl's father told French radio that his oldest daughter could 'barely swim' but managed to hang on.

Kassim Bakari, who spoke with his oldest daughter by phone, said Bahia was ejected and found herself beside the plane.

'She couldn't feel anything, and found herself in the water. She heard people speaking around her but she couldn't see anyone in the darkness,' Mr Bakari said on France's RTL radio. -- AP