More than a week after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, rescue workers have rescued a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed shopping center.
July 3, 2026, 2:00 p.mJuly 3, 2026, 2:00 p.m
Hernán Alberto Gil was reportedly working as a security guard at the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town of Maiquetía when the building collapsed in the June 24 earthquakes. At this point he was in his guardhouse, which was his great luck. Because this formed an air chamber in which he could survive. According to the rescue workers, he was around nine meters beneath the rubble. The helpers had already managed to make contact with him several days earlier. But locating it precisely required further effort.
Using sonar equipment and a tube camera, we were finally able to determine its exact position. It then took another almost three days to create direct access to him, which meant he could be supplied with water and other vital supplies via a hose.
The rescue turned into a race against time. Because of the unstable building structure, repeated aftershocks and further risk of collapse, the emergency services had to change their strategy several times and finally create new access to the buried victim. According to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, teams from Venezuela, El Salvador, Chile, the USA, Portugal, Mexico and Costa Rica were involved in the rescue operation.
To applause from the emergency services and bystanders, Gil was finally brought out of the rubble on a stretcher and transferred to a hospital in a stable condition.
The rescue is considered extraordinary. According to international experience, the chances of survival for buried victims decrease significantly after just a few days. Nevertheless, the emergency services continue their search for other survivors. According to the latest authorities, at least 2,595 people have died in the earthquakes and more than 11,000 have been injured. (msh with material from Keystone/sda)
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