Father And Son Rescued 4 Days After Venezuela Quakes; Death Toll Nears 1,500

A man and his teenage son were pulled from the rubble, nearly four days after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, AFP journalists saw in Caraballeda, a coastal town devastated by the disaster.Emergency teams with rescue dogs were searching Sunday for any remaining survivors of powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, where the death toll has surpassed 1,450.American and French rescue teams carried the boy and his father down from a mountain of debris on stretchers, both of them visibly in shock and exhausted. The teen, who was covered in dust, with blood on his right knee and his right hand bandaged, was brought out first.His father was brought out afterwards, also covered in dust and wearing only a piece of cloth on his body. A medical device was seen attached to his body.The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still reported missing, and the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims following a natural disaster has now passed.Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquake disasters. Rescue teams from the United States, Mexico and elsewhere scrambled to save people as desperate residents dug by hand for relatives trapped in the pancaked layers and rubble of collapsed apartments.Some 774 buildings were badly damaged in back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on Wednesday evening, including 189 buildings that have totally collapsed, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez told AFP. (With AFP Inputs)