A newborn baby has been rescued and alive from the rubble of a collapsed building 32 hours after twin earthquakes devastated Venezuela’s coastal city of La Guaira.
Video shared on social media on Friday showed rescue workers carefully pulling the infant from the debris under floodlights before passing the child from person to person as onlookers applauded.
The baby, wrapped in a quilt, was gently cleaned with tissues after being brought to safety.
According to Andreina Quintero, who shared the footage online, the infant was just 18 days old and appeared to be unharmed despite spending 32 hours trapped beneath the collapsed structure.
The baby’s mother had been rescued about an hour earlier. In a follow-up video, she was seen recovering in a hospital bed while a medical worker informed her that her child showed no signs of injury.
The medic suggested the mother may have protected the baby by shielding the infant with her body or another object during the collapse.
The rescue comes amid a growing humanitarian crisis following two powerful earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude that struck Venezuela on Wednesday.
According to the latest estimates, at least 920 people have been killed, while thousands have been injured or remain missing.
The United Nations has warned that up to 6.76 million people could be affected by the disaster, including nearly two million residents in the capital, Caracas.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its assessment, based on population and damage data, highlights the scale of the humanitarian emergency unfolding across the country.
Entire buildings have been reduced to rubble in La Guaira, one of the areas hardest hit by the twin earthquakes.
