A mother and her six-month-old baby boy were miraculously rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Cali following the devastating 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday.
Colombia remains in a state of national emergency after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the country. Per the U.S. Geological Center, the earthquake’s epicenter was registered some five kilometers south of the town of San José del Palmar, Chocó.
According to local outlets, the cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales, Armenia, and the Chocó capital city of Quibdó are among the most affected municipalities. The official death toll has rapidly climbed over the past 24 hours, going from 132 confirmed deaths as of the early morning hours of Monday to 181 and over 1,300 injured a few hours later.
Noticias Caracol reported that a woman and her infant were miraculously rescued from the rubble of a collapsed five-story building in the city’s southern neighborhood of Barrio Ciudad Capri. The collapsed building’s fifth floor reportedly housed a pool, with all lower levels housing residential apartments.
Footage of the mother and the baby’s rescue was published by local and international outlets.
Colombian rescue worker Carlos Ortiz detailed to Noticias Caracol that the baby’s condition is stable but suffered small lacerations and had other minor injuries by the time he was rescued. Ortiz stated that the successful rescue of the mother and her baby gave his team “lots of hope” to keep working, and emphasized, “we even rescued seven people so far and right now we are in the search, there are signs of life of an elderly couple and their seven-year-old grandson.”
Ortiz explained that his team arrived at the collapsed building at 9:30 a.m. (local time). According to testimonies from local neighbors, a “great silence” fell after the building collapsed, but screams of help began to be heard about 20 minutes after the tragedy. The collapsed building where the mother and the baby were rescued was reportedly built over 30 years ago. As of Monday night, Colombian firemen, police, and army officials have identified at least a dozen individuals who remain trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Barrio Ciudad Capri.
Per the Colombian association of Capital Cities, the majority of the confirmed deaths were registered in Cali as of Tuesday morning. At press time, over 1,000 injured were reportedly confirmed by local authorities. The earthquake also left at least 1,575 damaged households, 61 collapsed buildings, and caused damages to six airport terminals. Search and rescue operations were immediately deployed across the affected cities in the aftermath of the earthquake to find survivors among the rubble.
According to Infobae, at least 193 individuals were trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Cali, 37 of whom have been rescued as of Tuesday morning. Military officials have been deployed to over 40 affected areas of the city to maintain order and prevent any attempts at looting or public disorder as search and rescue operations continue. An additional group of 400 Colombian military officials were deployed to Cali following a meeting between conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella and the city’s mayor, Alejandro Eder.
At least 54 aftershocks have reportedly taken place since the magnitude 7.4 earthquake. Per the Colombian Geological Survey, the majority of the aftershocks occurred between Monday night and the early morning hours of Tuesday.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.