Rescuers have pulled a newborn baby alive from the rubble of a collapsed building 32 hours after the twin earthquakes that devastated parts of Venezuela.
A video shared on social media on Friday captured the dramatic rescue under floodlights in the hardest-hit city of La Guaira, north of the capital, Caracas. The footage showed emergency workers carefully retrieving the infant from the debris before passing the baby from one rescuer to another as onlookers applauded.
Wrapped in a quilt, the baby was gently cleaned with tissues before being taken to safety.
According to Andreina Quintero, who shared the video online, the infant was just 18 days old and miraculously escaped without injuries despite spending 32 hours trapped beneath the rubble.
The baby’s mother had been rescued about an hour after the child was trapped.
In a follow-up video from the hospital, medical personnel informed the mother that the baby appeared to be unharmed. A healthcare worker suggested the child’s survival may have been possible because the mother shielded the baby with her body or another protective object during the building’s collapse.
The remarkable rescue comes amid a devastating humanitarian crisis triggered by two powerful earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 that struck Venezuela on Wednesday.
The twin quakes have claimed at least 920 lives, while thousands of people have been injured or remain missing beneath collapsed buildings.
On Saturday, the United Nations estimated that nearly seven million people could be affected by the disaster.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its assessment, based on available population and damage data, indicates that up to 6.76 million people may have been impacted by the earthquakes, including nearly two million residents of Caracas.
According to the agency, the figures underscore the enormous humanitarian consequences of the disaster, with thousands displaced and widespread destruction across affected communities.
La Guaira, one of the worst-hit cities, has suffered extensive devastation, with entire buildings reduced to rubble following the powerful tremors.
