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La Guaira, Venezuela: In a remarkable rescue that officials have described as nothing short of miraculous, emergency teams pulled a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed building eight days after a devastating earthquake struck Venezuela.
The survivor, Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, a security guard in his 40s, had been trapped beneath nearly 29 feet (8.8 metres) of debris after the parking structure of the GalerÃas Playa Grande shopping mall collapsed during the quake.
The high-risk rescue operation lasted 67 hours, with teams from multiple countries painstakingly tunnelling through unstable rubble to reach him. Throughout the operation, rescuers managed to keep Flores alive by supplying food, water and medication through a narrow pipe while inching closer to his location.
After being freed, Flores—who remained conscious throughout much of the ordeal—was rushed to a hospital for medical treatment.
Officials described the operation as one of the most complex rescue missions in recent memory, while UN officials called the survival “rare” and “close to a miracle,” noting that surviving eight days beneath a collapsed structure is exceptionally uncommon.
