Father and son rescued after being buried in rubble for four days in Venezuela’s earthquakes

A father and his son were recovered alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday, four days after deadly earthquakes hit Venezuela.

It was a ‌scene that brought hope to the French and US rescue workers working in the area as they battle against time to find more survivors.

The two, who looked frail and both wore masks, were hoisted by rescue workers on makeshift fabric stretchers across streets strewn with debris to an ambulance waiting in La Guaira as a crowd formed around the emergency vehicles.

The coastal state was the worst impacted by Wednesday’s tremors that left over 1,500 dead and others missing.

They were rescued after 12 hours of laborious work by crews using specialised search cameras, who worked painstakingly through unstable rubble to reach the trapped victims.“They are very weak, as anyone would be after being under rubble for four days, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and give them various drugs as they are extracted, which is moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security.

The rescue squad in that region includes personnel of the French Civil Security and American responders from the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue squad in Virginia, who on the previous day rescued a mother and her 9-month-old infant.

Rescuers set up IVs, cleared rubble, and then pulled out the family members. Others waited beside the ruins, searching for signs of life, speaking with their colleagues amid the debris.

Over the weekend, at least 33 people were rescued, but tens of thousands are still missing, sparking worries that time is running out to find survivors.

But experts say that 72 hours after an earthquake the chances of discovering victims alive under the wreckage are quite slim.