‘Miracle’: Trapped man rescued eight days after Venezuela earthquakes

Attention has turned to the humanitarian response after at least 2,295 people are confirmed dead, and 13,000 homeless.A man has been rescued from a collapsed building eight days after twin earthquakes devastated Venezuela.The rescue on Thursday came as attention has begun to shift from finding survivors under the rubble to addressing the humanitarian needs of the thousands of residents displaced.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 1,700 as rescue hopes fadelist 2 of 3Rescuers find more bodies under rubble as Venezuela death toll riseslist 3 of 3As Venezuela responds to earthquake devastation, volunteers take chargeend of listAn estimated 60,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in last week’s earthquakes, which hit magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, respectively. An estimated 13,000 people have been left homeless.In its last official update, Venezuela’s government said that at least 2,295 people have been confirmed killed, with 11,000 injured. The death toll was expected to rise, with about 50,000 people reported missing.But in a rare ray of hope, rescue workers were able to reach 43-year-old security guard Hernan Gil on Thursday, after days of trying to retrieve him from a collapsed seven-storey building where he worked in the hard-hit coastal area of Catia La Mar.Gil had been located three days earlier. Rescue teams from seven countries, including Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico, worked to free him.“This is truly a miracle,” Gil’s wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, told the news agency AFP.Cristian Vera, the leader of the Chilean rescue team, told AFP that rescuers eventually were able to dig a three-metre (9.8-foot) tunnel to extract Gil. They had been able to provide him water via a hose and oxygen tube in recent days.“It wasn’t easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located,” he said.Reporting from the state of La Guaira, Al Jazeera correspondent Zein Basravi said that, while Gil’s recovery has given some families hope, countless rescue attempts across the country have ended in tragedy.