I clung to doorframe as floors collapsed

Brave Graciela's battle as she holds dying pal's hand. Families scream names to locate their loved ones

- BY SIMON MURPHY and NICOLA DONNELLY

PULLED from the rubble, a brave earthquake survivor reveals how she held on for her life.

Speaking from a stretcher in Venezuela, Graciela Mora recalled clinging to a doorframe as the floors collapsed.

Her remarkable tale emerged as the death toll from two quakes rose to at least 960 - with thousands more feared killed as frantic rescue attempts continue.

At least 3,360 people have been left injured by the back-to-back quakes, which struck on Wednesday evening.

Injured Graciela was freed from a collapsed building in shattered La Guaira, a city north of capital Caracas.

In footage on the BBC, she said: “I clung as tightly as I could to the doorframe, so tightly that I broke my finger. I held on tight, really tight, to the doorframe until all the floors collapsed.”

Though Graciela was rescued, a friend she was with at the time died. Graciela told AP how she held her friend’s hand when it looked like she was passing, so she would not have to die alone.

She said: “And then I saw her hand like that and grabbed it so that she could go.”