A man has been pulled out alive after surviving eight days trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building following twin earthquakes in Venezuela.
Emergency responders successfully freed Hernán Gil more than 100 hours after first detecting his presence under an estimated 140 tonnes of debris.
A firefighter from Chile described the rescue effort as “without doubt the most complex and technically difficult” operation he had ever faced.
Authorities confirmed that as of Thursday evening, 2,595 people have died in the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, while tens of thousands remain unaccounted for.
Paramedics and rescue teams from multiple countries worked tirelessly at the site, carefully inching through unstable debris to reach the trapped security guard.
Gil was discovered after a faint call for help was heard by a Costa Rican Red Cross paramedic, who initially thought he might have been mistaken before confirming the sound with a colleague.
From that moment, an international rescue effort involving teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States was launched in a race against time.
Rescuers managed to supply Gil with water and intravenous fluids during the operation, while repeatedly reinforcing access tunnels that were collapsing due to the unstable structure.
Overnight, teams finally established visual contact with Gil using a small camera, confirming his survival and allowing them to carefully coordinate his extraction.
Medical personnel reported that Gil appeared remarkably stable despite his ordeal, with rescuers noting that he remained conscious and communicative throughout the operation.
Rescue workers said his booth in the building’s basement may have acted as a protective structure, shielding him from the full force of the collapse.
Gil was eventually brought to safety after days of painstaking work, in what rescuers described as an emotional and extraordinary international effort.
