Emergency workers located security guard Hernán Gil on Saturday beneath the ruins of a multi-storey car park in Catia La Mar, but have only been able to make visual contact with him in the last hours. Despite being buried under nine-metre-deep, highly unstable rubble, rescuers say that Gil, who is in his 40s, is "in good spirits" and cheering them on. His wife has described his survival as "a miracle". Almost 2,300 people are confirmed to have died in the quakes which hit Venezuela on 24 June, and tens of thousands are still missing. Hundreds of rescuers have been working against the clock to free Gil since he was located more than 100 hours ago. Teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States are on the ground trying to free him.  Chilean firefighter Exequiel Gallardo said that he was "hopeful that we can do the rescue within the next few more hours". He told the BBC at the scene that there were still technical challenges they needed to overcome, including breaking a concrete slab to allow them to extract Gil. "I have been a rescue worker for 22 years, and this is without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I've had to tackle," he said. (BBC)