Res­cuers pulled a 43-year-old se­cu­ri­ty guard alive from a col­lapsed base­ment ear­ly Thurs­day, end­ing a gru­el­ing days-long op­er­a­tion that be­came a sym­bol of hope af­ter the dev­as­ta­tion of twin earth­quakes that struck Venezuela eight days ear­li­er.

Hernán Al­ber­to Gil Flo­res was ex­tract­ed safe­ly af­ter be­ing trapped since June 24 un­der the rub­ble in the base­ment of the Galerías Playa Grande shop­ping cen­ter in the coastal town in La Guaira. Res­cuers ini­tial­ly made con­tact with him over the week­end.

Teams car­ry­ing flags from across the world cheered as res­cuers car­ried Gil on a stretch­er cov­ered in an or­ange tarp through throngs of peo­ple in­to a Red Cross am­bu­lance. A group of men in red Cos­ta Ri­can Red Cross uni­forms em­braced and laughed in re­lief.