Jordan Public Security via ReutersA three-year-old boy has been pulled alive from the rubble six days after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, a Jordanian rescue team has said.
Video footage shows rescuers cheering as the child, named as Klieber Morán by the country’s interim president, is pulled from wreckage in La Guaira state.
Delcy Rodríguez described the child’s rescue as a moment of hope.
It comes as UN warned that tens of thousands of people were urgently in need of food and shelter
The massive tremors probably damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings, according to an initial assessment of satellite data from NASA.
The Jordanian civil defence said Klieber had been given first aid treatment, taken to a hospital and his vital signs were good. He was being treated in the capital Caracas, Venezuelan Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said.
The rescue comes well after the initial three-day period immediately after the quake during which experts say people trapped under debris have the best chance of being found alive.
La Guaira is one of the hardest hit areas, with many local people trying to carry out rescue efforts themselves.
The UN’s refugee agency said on Tuesday that food shortages were widespread, basic services had broken down and communications had been largely severed in La Guaira.
“Community tensions are rising as access to assistance remains constrained,” the UNHCR said in a statement on its website.
Daniela Armas, an 18-year-old vendor in La Guaira who was injured falling from a motorbike when the quakes struck, told AFP that some supplies were being distributed “but sometimes people nearly kill each other for food… it’s like a cockfight.”
The UNHCR said that it needed an initial $15m to “scale up protection, core relief items, and temporary shelter support for 30,000 earthquake-affected people over six months”.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization said health services were under “extreme pressure.”
“There’s an increased risk now of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases” such as measles and diphtheria due to low vaccination coverage, Christian Lindmeier said.
EPARodríguez said Klieber’s rescue showed there was still hope of continuing to find people alive and that domestic and international teams were still searching through rubble. Shelters were already open in La Guaira and other states, he added.
International rescue teams from the US, Mexico and dozens of other countries searched for survivors with trained dogs and heavy equipment.
Some international aid is arriving in the country. A UN spokesperson said a 47-tonne shipment of humanitarian supplies arrived on Tuesday including emergency health kits for urgent medical care, supplies for safe births, newborn care and disease prevention.
Meanwhile Venezuelans have begun burying the dead who have been found so far. Many more are waiting for the remains of loved ones who are presumed dead.
At the makeshift morgue at La Guaira’s port, Wilker Molalla told AFP he was waiting to identify the remains of his sister, her children and the children of his brother.
“There were 11 people in my household,” he said. “Only two of us survived because we were at work.”
