Rescuers hail 'miracle' as six-month-old Nicolas Barreto and his father survive landslides that left 500 dead
News of the "miracle" rescue of a six-month-old Brazilian boy provided a rare moment of hope yesterday as the death toll from this week's devastating landslides continued to rise.
Nicolas Barreto was reportedly at his grandmother's home in the hilltop town of Nova Friburgo, one of the worst-affected settlements, when a cascade of earth and debris swallowed up the area early on Wednesday.
He and his father were presumed to have died in the disaster, which has claimed more than 500 lives.
Nearly 15 hours later, however, elated Brazilian firefighters ? including some who helped out after Haiti's 2010 earthquake exactly a year earlier ? discovered Nicolas alive and well with his father, Wellington da Silva Guimar�es.
According to reports in Brazil, he and his 25-year-old father were cocooned in an underground air pocket and protected by the collapsed concrete roof. Guimar�es wrapped himself around his baby son in the foetal position during their 15-hour ordeal.
"We can consider this a miracle," one of the rescuers said as Nicolas was rushed to hospital where he was given a clean bill of health.
Ademilson Barreto Guimar�es, the baby's grandfather, wept as Nicolas was hauled from the destruction at around 8.30pm. "There's no way of explaining this. It really is a miracle," he told reporters.
The death toll is expected to rise further as rescue workers continue to pull bodies from the muddy earth.
The sheer force of the landslides meant there were few survivors; most victims were buried alive as they slept, their bodies frozen in serene Pompeii-esque poses.
"It's ugly, really ugly," said Vicente Luiz Florente, a builder whose brother was buried under rocks in the Campo Grande favela in Teres�polis and has yet to be found. "This was a community ? now all you can see is rocks."
Baby Nicolas's family did not escape the carnage. Hours after he was found alive, his mother and grandmother were reported to have died. They joined a growing number of fatalities in Nova Friburgo, one of the two worst-hit areas in Rio state.
At least 225 deaths have been confirmed in Nova Friburgo by this morning, with burials reportedly taking place once every five minutes at the town's cemetery.
The NGO Save the Children warned today that "up to half" of the fatalities were thought to be children.
The group said that up to 200,000 children in the mountainous region around Rio de Janeiro remained in danger as heavy rains continued to fall, bringing the risk of further flooding and landslides.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/brazil-landslides-miracle-baby-nicolas-barreto
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