Hope amid tragedy as 32-year-old pulled alive from Pereira collapse
Daniela Largo, 32, was extracted from a collapsed building in Pereira following a 10-hour effort, as the death toll from the 7.4-magnitude earthquake reached 188.
A 32-year-old woman has been pulled alive from the debris of a collapsed building in western Colombia, having spent 36 hours trapped beneath the ruins of a structure felled by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the region on Monday. Daniela Largo was finally extracted from the wreckage in the city of Pereira after a painstaking 10-hour rescue operation, during which firefighters burrowed through a tunnel beneath four heavy concrete slabs that had pinned her down. The rescue, which was hailed as a beacon of hope by President Abelardo de la Espriella, came as official figures confirmed that at least 188 people had lost their lives in the disaster, with hundreds more still unaccounted for across the affected areas.
The plight of Ms Largo came to light when a local resident heard her cries for help emanating from the mountain of rubble, prompting her mother to alert the authorities, according to accounts provided to the AFP news agency. Having arrived at the scene, emergency workers were able to pinpoint her location using a small camera, but the operation was rendered exceedingly difficult by the presence of four concrete slabs that had settled above her. Firefighters, who were joined by colleagues dispatched from the capital, Bogotá, and by the disaster response unit of the national police, were compelled to dig two separate tunnels to secure her release, with one shaft from above allowing them to supply oxygen to the trapped woman while a second, excavated from below, provided the means to pull her to safety.
The president took to social media to celebrate the successful extraction, describing the development as news that instils hope in a nation grappling with the scale of the catastrophe. Ms Largo’s mother, speaking from the site, noted that her daughter’s 12-year-old son was waiting for her at home, underscoring the personal tragedy that has touched countless families in the region. The rescue has provided a rare moment of uplift amid the widespread devastation, particularly in Pereira, where at least 92 buildings are reported to have collapsed and where 79 fatalities have been confirmed, making it the second-hardest-hit urban centre after Cali, which has recorded 95 deaths, according to data compiled by the Association of Colombian Capital Cities (Asocapitales).
In Cali, Colombia’s third-most-populous city, the situation remains critical, with more than 200 people still believed to be trapped beneath the debris as of 16:00 local time on Tuesday. The city’s mayor has imposed a night-time curfew and announced that soldiers would be deployed to patrol the worst-affected neighbourhoods, a measure intended to ensure that rescue efforts can proceed without interference. The mayor expressed his determination to continue the search for survivors, stating that there remained hope of finding more individuals alive and that every possible effort would be made to liberate those still imprisoned by the rubble. Some 87 people have been rescued in Cali so far, a testament to the relentless work of the emergency services, though the scale of the task ahead remains formidable.
The earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 7.4, struck at 07:34 local time (12:34 GMT) on Monday, with its epicentre situated near the village of San José del Palmar in Chocó province, yet its tremors were felt across an extensive area of the country. Seismological instruments positioned closest to the epicentre recorded ground shaking that lasted between 90 seconds and two minutes, a prolonged period that contributed to the structural collapses in cities some distance from the quake’s origin. In the aftermath, more than 100 aftershocks have been recorded, compounding the anxiety of residents and further destabilising already weakened structures. The rescue of Ms Largo stands as a singular triumph in a grim tally, a reminder that amid the ruins, the indomitable spirit of the rescue workers and the slender thread of survival continue to sustain hope for the families of those still missing.