CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Andrea Canonico focused on her breathing to stay calm as she lay trapped under a building that had crumbled during the two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week.

Just 23 years old, Canonico spent almost 48 hours in the same position before being pulled out — alive.

“The most important thing about all of this was that I never lost hope,” Canonico told AFP in the Los Corales neighbourhood in the city of La Guaira, the hardest-hit by the disaster.