A father and his son have been rescued alive after spending four days trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building following Venezuela’s earthquakes.
A father and his son have been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building, four days after two earthquakes struck Venezuela.
The pair were rescued on Sunday following a 12 hour operation by search teams in the coastal state of La Guaira, one of the areas worst affected by Wednesday’s earthquakes.
The death toll has now climbed to at least 1,450, while thousands more have been injured and tens of thousands remain missing as rescuers continue searching for survivors.
Before lifting the father and son to safety, emergency crews prepared intravenous drips while others continued searching nearby collapsed buildings for further signs of life.
Rescuers used specialist search cameras to locate the pair before carefully removing unstable rubble to reach them.
A member of the French Civil Security said: “They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be. We are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which is moving very slowly.”
The operation involved French Civil Security teams alongside members of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team from Virginia in the United States.
The same international team rescued a mother and her nine-month-old baby from the rubble on Saturday.
Both are understood to have sustained only minor injuries.
Two 11-year-old boys were also rescued in separate operations over the weekend.
One of the boys, named Moises, emerged from the remains of his home to applause from rescuers after spending days trapped beneath the rubble.
At least 33 people have been rescued over the weekend, but hopes of finding more survivors are fading as the search enters its fifth day.
