A remarkable story of survival has emerged from the wreckage of Colombia’s devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake, where a 32-year-old woman was pulled alive from beneath a collapsed building after spending 36 hours trapped. Daniela Largo’s rescue capped a grueling 10-hour operation carried out by coordinated emergency teams in the coffee-growing city of Pereira, one of the hardest-hit regions in the disaster.
The powerful quake struck at 07:34 local time (12:34 GMT) on Monday, with its epicenter located near the rural village of San José del Palmar in Chocó province. Seismic readings from monitoring stations closest to the impact zone recorded intense shaking that lasted between 90 seconds and two minutes, and more than 100 aftershocks have rattled the region in the days since the initial tremor, extending the disruption for affected communities.
According to official government data, the disaster has killed at least 188 people across western Colombia, with hundreds more still unaccounted for. As of latest figures from the Association of Colombian Capital Cities (Asocapitales), Cali, Colombia’s third most populous city, has recorded the highest death toll at 95 fatalities. Pereira follows closely with 79 confirmed deaths, and the city has seen at least 92 buildings completely leveled by the quake. As of 16:00 local time Tuesday, more than 200 people remained trapped in Cali, while 15 are still trapped in Pereira and another 37 are listed as missing in the city.
Largo’s unlikely rescue began when a local resident passing through the wreckage heard her cries for help coming from deep beneath the rubble, her mother told AFP. When first responders arrived at the site, they deployed a small camera to pinpoint her exact location, but the rescue effort immediately hit a major obstacle: four massive concrete slabs separated the team from the trapped woman.
To overcome the barrier, local firefighters joined forces with additional crews deployed from the capital Bogotá and the national police disaster response unit to dig two separate access tunnels. The first tunnel, excavated from above, allowed crews to pump life-sustaining oxygen to Largo while they worked. A second tunnel, dug from below the collapsed structure, ultimately provided the path to extract her.
After hours of painstaking work to avoid triggering further collapse, rescue teams successfully pulled Largo from the rubble and carried her on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, a moment captured in photos from AFP via Getty Images. Back at her family home, Largo’s 12-year-old son waits for her recovery, her mother confirmed.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella hailed the successful rescue in a social media post, calling it “news which fills us with hope” amid the widespread devastation. In Cali, where 87 people have already been rescued alive, mayor officials have enacted a night-time curfew and deployed soldiers to patrol the worst-hit neighborhoods to protect rescue operations.
“We need to ensure that the rescue work can be carried out safely,” the mayor said, adding that search teams still hold out hope of finding more survivors. “Everyone will do their utmost to free those trapped.”
Across the quake zone, residents continue to sift through shattered neighborhoods searching for missing loved ones, as emergency teams expand their search and rescue operations across the impacted region.