A rescue worker from Vietnam in a collapsed building in the coastal city of Catia La Mar, north of Caracas. Picture taken on Wednesday. Photo: Fernando Vergara/AP/TT
Hundreds of rescue workers are fighting to get out a man who for eight days was stuck in Venezuela’s rioting masses.
Almost 2,300 people have so far been confirmed dead in the quake. The chances of finding more survivors are described as very small.
Security guard Hernan Gil is buried under seven collapsed floors in Catia La Mar, inside the booth where he was working when the first earthquake shook Venezuela last Wednesday.
– It is a very complex rescue. “Several buildings are leaning against the house that we’re trying to get him out of,” said American rescue leader Manny Sampang to CBS News.
In the rubble outside, his wife Gusbimar Gonzalez is waiting, who says that the rescue workers have managed to provide her husband with water. Centimeter by centimeter, they get closer to the 43-year-old.
– It is a miracle, the wife tells AFP about the fact that he is alive – and that so many people are helping in the fight to save him.
Two-year-old rescued
On Tuesday – six days after the quake – a two-year-old boy was rescued in La Guaira. When he arrived at hospital, he was in a state of shock – “just screaming and screaming”, his aunt Andreína Sarmiento told the BBC. Now she is hoping for another miracle: that her sister and husband are found alive.
– I pray to God to give me strength. He is only two years old and I am not a mother, says the 23-year-old.
Nearly 2,300 people had been confirmed dead by Wednesday evening in the quake, which was the strongest to hit Venezuela in over a century. Tens of thousands are still missing.
Marked with “D” for dead
The window to succeed in finding survivors is shrinking. In the past six days, the around 3,000 international rescue workers who arrived have only managed to save twelve people alive, according to the UN crisis coordination team, Undac, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
In hard-hit La Guaira, north of Caracas, a majority of the demolished buildings are now marked with the letter D, reports AFP. D for deceased, which means that the houses were searched without the rescue workers finding any signs of life.
On Wednesday, the Netherlands’ team announced it was ending its mission in Venezuela, as the chances of finding survivors dwindled.
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