A 43-year-old security guard has been rescued alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Venezuela, eight days after twin earthquakes devastated parts of the country, in what rescuers and relatives described as a miraculous survival.
The dramatic rescue of Hernan Gil on Thursday sparked celebrations among hundreds of emergency responders, who embraced and applauded after successfully bringing him out of the debris of a seven-storey building in Catia La Mar, a coastal community that was almost completely destroyed by the June 24 earthquakes.
Gil was carried from the wreckage on a stretcher following an intensive rescue operation involving emergency teams from Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico.
His wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, described the rescue as nothing short of extraordinary.
“This is truly a miracle,” she said as rescuers worked to free her husband.
According to rescue officials, teams spent three days carefully locating and reaching Gil beneath the collapsed structure.
During the operation, they supplied him with more than 10 litres of water through a hose and installed an oxygen tube to keep him alive.
The final stage of the rescue involved around 30 personnel clearing debris from the building’s parking area, while two rescuers dug a three-metre tunnel to reach the trapped survivor.
“It wasn’t easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located,” said Cristian Vera, who led the Chilean rescue team.
Gil’s rescue comes as hopes of finding more survivors continue to fade. Earlier this week, rescuers also pulled a three-year-old boy alive from the rubble six days after the disaster, but officials say such rescues have become increasingly rare.
Attention is now shifting to the humanitarian crisis unfolding across the country, with thousands of survivors left without shelter, food or clean water.
The twin earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, devastated several communities in Venezuela, damaging infrastructure already weakened by years of economic hardship.
READ ALSO: Rescuers Race Against Time As Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Nears 1,500
According to NASA estimates, nearly 60,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed by the disaster.
Venezuela’s National Assembly President, Jorge Rodriguez, said the official death toll had risen to 2,295, while more than 11,000 people sustained injuries.
He added that nearly 13,000 residents had been displaced and were now living in temporary shelters, parks and open spaces after losing their homes.
Authorities also said tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for.
In the hardest-hit areas, rescue operations have largely shifted from searching for survivors to recovering victims. Many collapsed buildings have been marked after searches found no signs of life.
Crane operator Manuel Alejos, who has been assisting recovery efforts in Catia La Mar, said his team had already recovered seven bodies from a collapsed eight-storey building.
“We break through slab by slab to retrieve the bodies. The families need the bodies to say their goodbyes,” he said.
Mexican firefighter Cesar Gonzalez, who is working with search-and-rescue dogs, said optimism had diminished significantly in recent days.
“One is for detecting the living, the other for cadavers. Just two days ago, there was much more hope. Now, it would take a miracle to find anyone alive,” he said.
Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies have warned of worsening conditions as hospitals struggle with overwhelming demand and shortages of essential supplies.
The World Food Programme has appealed for $50 million to provide food assistance to about 500,000 people over the next three months, while security personnel continue to patrol affected communities to prevent looting.
Among those displaced is 33-year-old Maria Arteaga, who is sheltering with her four children under makeshift tarpaulins on a football field.
“We lost everything, except our lives. We’re even barefoot,” she said.