Security guard rescued from building basement eight days after Venezuela earthquakes

For 10 minutes, interrupted only by the occasional cellphone ring or shout from a rescuer, people strained their ears for any sound of survivors of the twin earthquakes that last week destroyed six of the eight towers that made up the Hugo Chavez complex, known colloquially as Los Cocos.

146 people were onboard the deportation flight, including 19 women and seven children, which landed hours before the earthquakes struck

Emergency workers located security guard Hernán Gil on Saturday beneath the ruins of a multi-storey car park in Catia La Mar, but have only been able to make visual contact with him in the last hours.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores was extracted safely after being trapped since 24 June under the rubble in the basement of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping centre in the coastal town in La Guaira.