‘HE IS IN THERE’

Venezuelan woman digs for missing son with bare hands

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Amparo del Giudice (1) dug through a mound of concrete with her bare hands in a desperate search for her son, trapped beneath rubble after Venezuela's strongest quake since 1900. La Guaira was one of the worst-hit regions.

With no government help in sight, del Giudice clawed at the rubble. “It is a lot of rock, and with bare hands it is impossible,” she said.

Her grandson Alessandro, 23, wearing a volunteer firefighter’s helmet, joined the search for his missing father. “He is in there,” he sobbed, staring at the remains of what was once a building.

AFP witnessed looting as dust hung over luxury beachfront condominiums reduced to piles of metal, glass and concrete. The coastal highway split apart in several places, while many buildings became uninhabitable or were destroyed. Two five-star hotels also collapsed.

Rescuers and volunteers climbed heaps of debris from buildings up to 15 storeys high, calling out the names of the missing as aftershocks rattled damaged structures. On one battered house, someone had scrawled: “Perez family, alive.”