Karina Blanco was about to start the spinning class she teaches when the earth began to shake. The shaking intensified, so she grabbed her bag and ran outside with the others.

“When I realized the magnitude of what was happening, I started shouting: ‘My daughter, my daughter!’ I got in my car and drove as fast as I could,” Karina said.

Their only daughter, 12-year-old Fabiana, was at home when two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela just seconds apart on June 24. The second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.5, was one of the strongest the country has suffered in a century.

When Karina arrived at her building in Caraballeda, in the north of the state of La Guaira, she could hardly believe what she saw.

“I saw a building, then a hole where mine used to be, and then another building,” he said.

Fabiana was in her mother's bedroom—located on the first floor of a ten-story building—when she felt the earthquakes. He ran into the kitchen and grabbed onto the counter just as the walls around him collapsed. The force of the collapse threw her to the ground.

"I saw things shaking, falling and breaking. Then, the walls cracked. The wall that separated my apartment from that of a friend collapsed. At that moment I thought: 'I'm going to die. I won't survive this. No one will come to rescue me,'" Fabiana said.

From that moment on, an agonizing wait began that lasted 32 hours.

From outside the collapsed building, Karina saw half of her daughter's bed protruding from the rubble.

"I was running from one end of the complex to the other screaming, 'She's dead. My daughter is dead.' I didn't know what to do," Karina said.

Under the remains of the building, everything was silent for Fabiana. She was lying on her back, trapped by rubble and with the ceiling almost touching her face.

"I am a person who suffers from a lot of anxiety and claustrophobia. But, I don't know why, a strange calm invaded me. Maybe my mind was in a state of shock," he commented.

Shortly after, a nurse who worked caring for the neighbors upstairs began shouting to see if anyone could hear her. Fabiana responded.

“He told me to stay calm and that everything would be fine,” Fabiana said.

Six hours after the earthquake, around midnight, the nurse was rescued. She told the volunteers who took her out that there was a girl named Fabiana alive inside.

"I had put myself in God's hands, asking for strength to start a new life without Fabiana. And then someone told me: 'Your daughter is alive,'" Karina said.

She ran back to the building screaming into the gaps in the rubble, calling her daughter's name.

A mission that was thought impossible

From the pile of rubble, Fabiana couldn't hear anything.

“For some reason, I had hope and faith,” he said.

"My leg was bent in a painful position and I moved some debris so I could stretch it. Doing so gave me scratches and cuts, but I found a ketchup bottle and some grated cheese. That's what kept me conscious," he said.

At dawn, a group of Venezuelan firefighters arrived at the building. They went into the rubble and called Fabiana, but got no answer.

It was one of the many moments when Karina oscillated between hope and despair.

"They told me there was nothing they could do and they left. I was overcome with the thought that maybe he had suffocated or had a heart attack. Then a volunteer came up to me and asked me what was happening. He—Viktor—was my hero," he said.

Under the rubble, Fabiana found her phone. There was no signal, as cellular networks had gone down, but he decided to record a video. She thought that sooner or later she could send it to her mother or someone who could help her.

"Apartment: Ritamar Palace. There was an earthquake and a lot of rubble has fallen. There is no light. There is no one to rescue us. I am alone. Many neighbors are trapped in the rubble. We need help," Fabiana is seen saying in the recording.

Meanwhile, Viktor had climbed over the rubble and started calling out to Fabiana. This time she heard it and responded. He told Karina.

“I turned to everyone and shouted, ‘My daughter is alive!'” Karina said.

"People began to arrive en masse and bring tools. But the firefighters who were there said it was impossible to get through and they left," he added.

A few hours later another group of firefighters arrived. They assured him that they would get Fabiana out. However, they were not able to reach her either.

Meanwhile, Viktor—the volunteer—returned again and again to the point where he could talk to Fabiana to reassure her.

Firefighters requested a rescue team from Caracas, but by the time they arrived, it was already dark.

Karina ran from one place to another looking for flashlights and begging for help. Seven motorcycles and a couple of cars pointed their headlights at the collapsed building.

Little by little they chipped away at the rubble until, finally, they opened a hole large enough to see Fabiana.

The video of that moment – ​​in which a smiling Fabiana is seen peeking out of the gap – has gone viral in Venezuela.

"After so many hours trapped, I was filled with joy when I saw them. I realized that I was going to be rescued," said Fabiana.

Around 2:00 a.m. local time on Friday—32 hours after the earthquakes occurred—they managed to dig a tunnel wide enough to get Fabiana out. She climbed out of the rubble with the help of rescuers and collapsed in her mother's arms.

“When I came out, I saw my family, I saw the building completely collapsed, and I felt as if it were not real, as if it were a television series,” Fabiana said.

Karina says that, of the almost 50 people who lived in her building, only three were rescued alive.

By Sunday, authorities had confirmed 3,342 people dead from the earthquakes, as well as nearly 17,000 injured, while tens of thousands remained missing.

Apart from a fracture in her left foot and some scratches and bruises, Fabiana suffered no other injuries.

He now lives with his grandmother.

“At first I was afraid to lie down, especially on my back, because I remembered the time I spent in the rubble,” he said.

In the streets near his current home in La Guaira, there are many collapsed buildings.

"There is great sadness outside this house. I feel a lot of pain when thinking about my neighbors and friends. It will take us time to recover. But we will get through this," said Karina.

"What more could a mother want? My daughter is alive," she added.

Additional reporting by Aakriti Thapar, Yesman Utrera, Maria Ines Calderon and Sanjay Ganguly

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