On the fourth day of search and rescue operations after the devastating earthquake in Venezuela, Argentine soldiers and their sniffer dog Bart found two children alive under the rubble. Earlier, a father and his son were rescued. The death toll has reached at least 1,450, with over 3,000 injured.
The survivors were located by Bart, a search and rescue dog who entered a tunnel among the debris and signaled the presence of people, guiding the rescue teams to the correct direction, the Argentine Ministry of Defense announced on platform X. The post, also shared by Argentine President Javier Milei, showed rescuers and Bart at work but did not clarify whether the children had already been extracted or their condition.
Earlier on Sunday, media reported the rescue of a father and his son from a collapsed building in La Guaira, the state hardest hit by Wednesday’s tremors. US, French, and Venezuelan rescuers pulled them to the surface after 12 hours of painstaking efforts using specialist cameras and moving through unstable rubble. According to Reuters, the success came as hopes for finding survivors were fading. The rescue on the fourth day gave hope to thousands of Venezuelans still searching for missing relatives.
Rescue milestones and diminishing chances
– At this moment, many are losing hope. You can see it on their faces. When someone is saved, that father and son, it is more than a glimmer, it is real hope for people – said AP journalist Juan Pablo Arraez, who witnessed the rescue. These were not the only survivors found on Sunday. A team from the US state of Virginia reported pulling three more people from the rubble that day. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that rescue workers from his country, together with Peruvian firefighters, saved a 60-year-old woman who had been trapped for 86 hours.
Experts note that the chances of survival for those in collapsed buildings decrease with each passing hour. Still, rescuers continue searching affected areas, listening for any signs of life under the debris, reported Spanish-language CNN.
International aid and local frustrations
According to Venezuelan authorities, about 2,700 foreign rescuers have arrived in the country. Many Venezuelans complain about a shortage of heavy equipment and sluggishness of state services. There have also been reports of tensions between residents and soldiers who guarded the area but did not help in searching through the rubble.
Jorge Rodriguez, president of the Venezuelan parliament, announced on Sunday that the earthquakes had killed at least 1,450 people and injured 3,150. Experts fear the toll will rise significantly. The UN estimated the number of missing at over 50,000. The tremors, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday evening local time, causing widespread destruction. More than 770 buildings were damaged or completely collapsed. Rodriguez described this as the worst natural disaster in the history of Venezuela.
Źródło: Polsat News, Fot. X/@gobierno
