Venezuela Quake Survivor Pulled From Rubble After Eight Days

CARACAS, July 3 (NNN-Xinhua) -- For days, rescuers dug carefully through the ruins of a collapsed building in Venezuela's quake-hit La Guaira state, inching closer to a man trapped beneath the rubble for eight days – far beyond the critical 72-hour survival window, reported Xinhua.

Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez announced on Thursday that the 43-year-old security guard Hernan Alberto Gil Flores had been rescued alive from the Galerias Playa Grande complex in La Guaira after more than 100 hours of continuous rescue work.

“Today we celebrate Hernan's life. We celebrate the greatness of the human spirit when people unite for a single purpose: to save another,” Rodriguez said on social media, thanking Venezuelan and foreign rescue teams involved in the operation.

A video accompanying her message showed rescuers from Chile and Venezuela's Civil Protection agency celebrating after Gil Flores was brought safely to the surface.

Gil Flores was on duty in a guard booth at the seven-storey building in the coastal city of Catia La Mar when two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24.

The building collapsed, burying him beneath the debris.

Before the rescue, teams from several countries had worked around the clock in shifts to reach him.

According to AFP, rescuers said earlier on Thursday they were only about one metre from Gil Flores, but had to proceed with extreme caution to avoid causing another collapse.

Cristian Vera, head of the Chilean rescue team, said that the structure of the rubble was highly complex, making it difficult to reach the exact place where the survivor was trapped.

“It is truly a miracle,” the survivor's wife Gusbimar Gonzalez said. “I am moved that so many people have come together to save one person.”

His rescue was not the only remarkable survival story to emerge from the disaster.

Also in La Guaira, a three-year-old boy trapped under rubble was rescued six days after the earthquakes.

Experts generally believe that survival under earthquake debris becomes extremely difficult after 72 hours, often considered the key rescue window.

The June 24 twin earthquakes have so far killed at least 2,295 people, injured 12,400 and displaced 12,841, according to the latest official figures.

Authorities have recorded 782 aftershocks since the disaster.

Although both the frequency and magnitude of the aftershocks had declined, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez warned on Wednesday that the risk of stronger aftershocks remains.

Venezuelan authorities said more than 30,000 national rescue and recovery workers have joined thousands of international responders in search-and-rescue efforts.

Rescue dogs and support vehicles have also been deployed in disaster areas to help locate survivors and transfer affected residents.

--NNN-XINHUA