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๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Nigeria /Disasters & Emergencies

Newborn baby rescued from Venezuela earthquake rubble

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • A newborn baby was rescued alive from earthquake rubble in La Guaira, Venezuela, 32 hours after twin quakes struck.
  • Video shows rescuers carefully bringing the infant, who was unharmed, to safety.
  • The baby's mother was also rescued an hour after the child, and a medic suggested the mother may have shielded the infant during the collapse.

In a remarkable display of resilience, a newborn baby has been rescued from the debris of a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela, a staggering 32 hours after the city was devastated by twin earthquakes. The dramatic rescue was captured on video, showing rescuers working under floodlights atop the rubble to bring the infant out late Friday.

The video, shared on social media, depicts rescuers carefully passing the baby, wrapped in a quilt, from one person to another before gently cleaning the child. According to the user who posted the video, Andreina Quintero, the infant was just 18 days old and miraculously uninjured. The child's mother was rescued approximately an hour after her baby.

A medic attending to the mother in a hospital bed later suggested that the infant might have survived by being covered by her body or another object during the collapse. The back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, have left at least 920 people dead, with thousands more injured or missing.

The rescue offers a glimmer of hope amidst the widespread devastation, underscoring the tenacity of life in the face of catastrophic natural disasters. The images of the clean, unharmed baby being brought to safety have resonated widely, providing a moment of profound relief for a nation grappling with immense loss.

DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.