A father and his son have been rescued alive from the debris of a collapsed building in Venezuela, four days after two earthquakes hit the region. The dramatic operation took 12 hours and was carried out by search teams in La Guaira, a coastal state heavily impacted by the recent earthquakes.
The death toll has now surpassed 1,450, with thousands sustaining injuries. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing as tens of thousands of individuals are still unaccounted for. Emergency crews, before extracting the father and son from the rubble, prepared intravenous drips and scoured nearby collapsed structures for any remaining survivors.
Specialist search cameras were utilized to locate the trapped individuals, and rescuers meticulously cleared unstable debris to reach them. A member of the French Civil Security mentioned that due to being trapped for four days, the rescued pair was extremely weak but efforts were underway to provide necessary medical assistance during the slow extraction process.
The rescue operation involved teams from the French Civil Security and the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team from Virginia, USA. This international team previously rescued a mother and her nine-month-old baby with minor injuries. Additionally, two 11-year-old boys were also saved in separate operations, including one named Moises who received a warm applause upon emerging from the rubble.
Over 2,600 rescue workers from various countries, supported by nearly 140 trained search dogs, are partaking in the search mission in Venezuela. Aftershocks persist, posing a risk of further damage, with recent quakes measuring 4.2 and 4.5. Due to disrupted communication networks, many Venezuelans are using digital databases to report missing loved ones, with over 50,000 individuals listed as missing.
Despite the rescue of 33 people over the weekend, hopes of finding more survivors are dwindling as the search efforts enter the fifth day.