Rescue teams extracted three brothers alive from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela, in one of the glimmers of hope left by the devastating double earthquake on Wednesday.
The rescue took place in the Mansión Charaima complex, in Caraballeda, where five of the eleven floors of the building collapsed following two earthquakes measuring 7.1 and 7.5 that shook the north of the country with just 39 seconds apart at 6:04 PM local time on June 24.
In the rescue video, widely shared on social media, the rescuers can be heard extracting the minors one by one amid exclamations of relief.
"Come here, my child, come here. Grab the kids, did you hear? Another girl," one of the rescuers is heard saying as he guides the little ones toward the safety threshold.
When asked if they were family, one of the brothers responded clearly: "There are three of us. Are you brothers? Yes, there are three of us."
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 amidst a catastrophe of historic proportions for Venezuela.
In the same coastal area, a woman identified as Aikel Sánchez was rescued from the Los Corales building, and another woman was rescued with her father at a different location in the city.
In Caracas, the damages were concentrated in Los Palos Grandes, Altamira, and San Bernardino, where at least two buildings collapsed: the 14-story Petunia residential building and the Bancaribe building. More than 90 structures were affected in the state of Miranda.
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 interim president Delcy Rodríguez declared a constitutional state of emergency, ordered the closure of the Maiquetía International Airport due to "severe damage to its structure," and suspended the Caracas Metro, the Valles del Tuy Railway, and school classes.
The casualty figures had not yet been consolidated in an official report, although the United States Geological Survey estimated with a 42% probability that there would be between 10,000 and 100,000 fatalities, a projection generated automatically by its alert system which does not equate to an actual count. Rodríguez later reported 164 fatalities and over 900 injured.
Amidst the widespread pain, a video testimony captured by Anadolu Agency in La Guaira summed up the magnitude of the tragedy for many families: "Elías' family, brother, they all died."
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