Baby rescued from earthquake rubble in Colombia as death toll rises

Footage posted on social media shows a young baby being pulled alive from the rubble of a destroyed building in Colombia after a 7.-magnitude earthquake struck the country Monday.

The video, posted by Brian Osorio Zuluaga on Monday night, shows a group of people combing through the rubble of a building in Cali, asking a survivor trapped underneath if he is alone. “I’m with a baby,” the man can be heard saying in a muffled voice. 

As they race to remove pieces of concrete with their bare hands, the muffled cries of a child are heard. Another video shows a man holding the crying infant, with his arms covered in blood and the lower half of his body still trapped in rubble.

The five men in the video slowly remove the baby then shout for a paramedic before erupting in a euphoric cheer. The last video posted by Zuluaga shows the workers continuing to help free the man who had been holding the baby.

“Today I understood, more than ever, that no one is really prepared to live through a situation like the one we are experiencing today,” Zuluaga wrote on the post accompanying the videos.

He described being among the first people at that location and helping a group of people rescue others. 

“A helping hand can make the difference between life and death,” Zuluaga wrote. “In moments like this, differences don’t matter, what matters is helping.”

The conditions of the baby and the adult who held him were not immediately clear.

Search teams and volunteers across the country are racing against time to save anyone who may still be alive under the rubble.

Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella, who had only been in power for days when the disaster struck, said at least 181 people had died and 2,595 were injured. On Wednesday, authorities in Cali said the current death toll stands at 216.  

Civilian-run databases estimate nearly 4,000 people are still unaccounted for.

The U.S. has offered over $15 million in aid and Mexico’s president said she is prepared to send hundreds of search and health workers, tons of health supplies and other equipment.

On Tuesday afternoon, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his country would send two planes loaded with 100 tons of aid in the coming days.

“Our prayers are with the families of the victims, the wounded and all the Colombian people,” Bukele wrote on X.