Rescue teams successfully pulled three brothers alive from under the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela, in one of the hopeful images left by the devastating double earthquake on Wednesday.
The rescue occurred at the Mansión Charaima complex in Caraballeda, where five of the eleven floors of the building collapsed after two earthquakes measuring 7.1 and 7.5 that shook the northern part of the country with just 39 seconds apart at 6:04 PM local time on June 24.
In the rescue video, widely circulated on social media, the rescuers can be heard pulling the children out one by one amidst exclamations of relief.
"Come here, my child, come. Grab the kids, did you hear? Another girl," one of the rescuers is heard saying while guiding the little ones towards the threshold of safety.
When asked if they were family, one of the brothers replied clearly: "We are three. Are you brothers? Yes, we are three."
When the three children were safe, a rescuer exclaimed, "You are fine, thank God," and another added, "My lord, you are merciful."
The city of La Guaira was declared a disaster zone following the earthquakes, and the rescue of the three brothers became a symbol of hope amid a catastrophe of historic proportions for Venezuela.
In the same coastal area, a woman identified as Aikel Sánchez was rescued from the building Los Corales, along with another woman and her father at a different location in the city.
In Caracas, the damage was concentrated in Los Palos Grandes, Altamira, and San Bernardino, where at least two buildings collapsed: the 14-story residential Petunia and the Bancaribe building. More than 90 structures were affected in the Miranda state.
The Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello described on state television "alarming situations" in Los Palos Grandes and Altamira, and confirmed that "all security and assistance agencies, civil protection, volunteers, firefighters, police, everyone is deployed."
The acting president Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of constitutional emergency, ordered the closure of Maiquetía International Airport due to "severe structural damage," and suspended the Caracas Metro, the Tuy Valley Railway, and school classes.
The victim figures have not yet been consolidated in an official report, although the United States Geological Survey estimated a 42% probability of between 10,000 and 100,000 fatalities, which is an automatic projection from their alert system and does not represent an actual count. Rodríguez later reported 164 fatalities and over 900 injuries.
Amid widespread pain, a video testimony captured by Anadolu Agency in La Guaira summarized the magnitude of the tragedy for many families: "Elías's family, brother, they all died."
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