Desperate Venezuelans raced Thursday to find and rescue loved ones trapped alive beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings after two major earthquakes that killed at least 235 people.
Buildings cracked, crumbled, and tilted precariously after the quakes, which the United States Geological Survey measured at magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, hit northern Venezuela within less than a minute of each other on Wednesday night.
Powerful aftershocks could still be felt Thursday, and Health Minister Carlos Alvarado reported the death toll had risen to at least 235, with around 4,300 people injured.
Rescue efforts moved slowly, with bodies still visible under debris hours after the quakes, while time ran out for some of those who were trapped and injured.
In a city in the worst-hit state of La Guaira, north of Caracas, residents listened helplessly as a young girl cried out for help for hours.
“We need people…, military personnel, to come and help so we can get her out,” said resident Dani Rizo, 48.
Not long after, the girl died, local residents told AFP.
Elsewhere in La Guaira, three people could be heard in the rubble of a collapsed building.
“They’re still alive… There’s nothing more we can do,” said one resident, Antonio Bermudez. “We don’t have any tools. We have no way to help.”
A doctor at the Domingo Luciani Hospital in the city, speaking on condition of anonymity, said children were arriving in ambulances alone after being pulled out of the rubble.
“Some children provide their names, while others arrive with identification tape on their arms,” he said.
Global rescue teams on way
A rescue worker, speaking off the record, told AFP conditions were precarious, with a shortage of trained personal and significant technical limitations.
Interim president Delcy Rodriguez visited La Guaira on Thursday after the area was declared a “disaster zone.”
AFP reporters witnessed residents looting a local supermarket in the city.
Venezuela’s director of the International Rescue Committee, Nicole Kast, described the situation as catastrophic.
Offers of support poured in from around the world, with Switzerland, Spain, France, Portugal and Mexico among those sending specialists and rescue teams to Venezuela.
The United States said it was deploying two warships, transport planes and helicopters as well as mobilizing $150 million in aid.
“We have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big, it’ll be fast, and it’ll be effective,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Washington is closely involved in oil-rich Venezuela after US forces ousted and arrested president Nicolas Maduro in January.
China, India, Brazil and even war-battered Iran offered help, while Pope Leo XIV has sent an initial 100,000 euros in aid to the country.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” by the disaster as the global body vowed to assist Venezuela.
The strongest quake to hit Venezuela in 126 years will require “massive collective efforts,” UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement.
Threatening to complicate relief efforts, the international airport is in La Guaira and has been closed after suffering serious damage.
Two Brazilians, two Chinese, an Italian and a Portuguese citizen were among the dead, authorities in those countries said.
Tremors felt in Colombia, Brazil
Venezuela’s northern coast sits on a boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, but has not experienced a significant quake since 1997, when 73 people died. Another quake in 1967 killed 236 people.
Wednesday’s 7.5-magnitude earthquake was the most powerful since October 29, 1900, when a 7.7-magnitude tremor struck offshore.
The quake was felt in neighboring Colombia, where residents in Bogota evacuated buildings as a precaution.
Tremors were also reported in several cities in northern Brazil, according to the country’s seismic monitoring network.
Scenes of panic and destruction also played out in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, where many spent the night sleeping on the streets or in their cars.
Rita Gomez, 60, travelled to the capital after seeing on social media that the building her daughter lives in had collapsed and that she was not answering her phone.
She told AFP that heavy machinery had arrived and there was “a lot of cooperation from the neighbors. We are trusting in God that they will find her alive.”
