Man rescued from rubble of his workplace eight days after Venezuela earthquakes

An international team has rescued a security guard who had been trapped for eight days in the rubble of the building where he worked, following the twin earthquakes that jolted Venezuela.

Hernan Gil, 43, had been buried underneath the seven-story building in Catia La Mar, a coastal area in the state of La Guaira devastated by the disaster.

After three days of careful digging, Gil was brought out on a stretcher as elated rescuers cheered and hugged each other. He was loaded into a waiting ambulance and driven away.

Rescuers from seven countries — Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico — were involved in the painstaking operation.

In the final phase, two rescuers dug inside the three-meter tunnel that had been hollowed out to extract him, while around 30 people worked tirelessly in the building’s parking lot to clear the debris.

Rescuers used a rotary hammer to break through a metal plate after warning of the risk of collapse of a neighboring building.

Throughout the operation, they gave Gil water and installed a tube through which they supplied him with air.

“I have never seen anything so difficult. I don’t know if there’s ever been such a long rescue like this,” says one rescuer at the scene, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said yesterday that the number of deaths had risen to 2,295, and more than 11,000 people were injured.