Six days trapped, a miracle rescue
A three-year-old child was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Venezuela on Monday, six days after a pair of powerful earthquakes devastated the country's northern coast. The rescue, broadcast on Venezuelan television, offered a rare moment of hope in a disaster that has killed at least 1,900 people and left tens of thousands missing.
Ritasol Palace: a community erased
In La Guaira, the Ritasol Palace apartment building was flattened almost instantly when the quakes struck. Nelson Torrealba, who had left the building minutes before to buy groceries, returned to find nothing but a mountain of rubble where his wife and two sons had been. Missing-poster photos now cover lamp posts and walls around the site. Surviving residents have acquired heavy machinery to continue searching after authorities declared an end to official rescue operations on Saturday.
UN warns of rising toll
The United Nations has said it is procuring 10,000 body bags for Venezuela, indicating expectations that the final death count will climb sharply. The pair of earthquakes, which struck within hours of each other, have caused widespread destruction across the La Guaira region and parts of Caracas, collapsing dozens of mid-rise apartment buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.