“We are trying to get everyone out alive,” he told AFP. “One of the rescuers asked anyone trapped to whistle, and someone whistled back.”

“They pulled out a man and a baby, but the wife is still in there,” he said near a pancaked multistory building.

Rescuers formed human chains to remove bricks and masonry, stopping every few minutes to listen for signs of life from those trapped below.

“A lot of people have come, with supplies, with food, helping the firefighters, helping the people,” he said.

There were scenes of destruction in several cities, with furniture and fabrics sandwiched between concrete, walls and floors tossed into irregular angles, and cabling strewn across roads.

The devastation comes less than two months after powerful twin quakes rattled neighboring Venezuela, killing over 6,300 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.