Rescue teams and residents in Venezuela are continuing to search for survivors after twin earthquakes killed more than 900 people and left thousands injured.
The government said 920 people had died, 3,360 had been injured and 172 remained trapped after the quakes hit parts of Caracas and surrounding areas on Wednesday evening. More than 50,000 people have been reported missing.
A further 4.9-magnitude tremor was felt on Friday afternoon in the capital, Caracas, and in the nearby city of Maracay.
Relief efforts have been uneven in some of the worst-affected areas, including La Guaira state, where residents and volunteers have been digging through rubble by hand because of shortages of heavy equipment.
Jennifer Palacios, 25, said her six-year-old son and five other relatives were still trapped in La Guaira city’s eight-tower Hugo Chávez housing complex.
“It’s the community that has managed to get people out alive,” she said. “We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped.”
A UN report estimated direct damage from the two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, at about $6.7bn. The second quake was Venezuela’s strongest in more than a century.
Reuters witnesses travelling through the region saw cracked highways and buildings reduced to broken concrete and twisted metal. Some damaged buildings had been marked with names to help rescuers identify locations.
Volunteers have been bringing supplies by motorcycle from Caracas and Valencia.
Although officials initially thanked volunteers, interim President Delcy Rodríguez and other authorities later asked people to stay away from La Guaira city, saying blocked roads were making rescue operations more difficult.
Road closures were due to begin at 8pm local time, with access limited to official and registered response teams.
In the coastal town of Caraballeda, lawyer Ricardo Trias, 73, said he was trying to obtain official documents after his godson, Armando López, 54, was recovered from the rubble of his building on Thursday night.
“No forensic authority has come,” he said.
The disaster is likely to test Rodríguez’s interim government, which has promised a major relief deployment.
Reuters witnesses in Catia La Mar, a town in La Guaira, saw people taking basic goods including toilet paper, cooking oil and bread from a damaged store. Police, the National Guard and other officials did not intervene, according to witnesses.
Rodríguez, who took power after the United States captured her predecessor in January, has sought to present herself as a figure of political change, despite having served as vice president under ousted leader Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela’s oil production was not affected by the earthquakes, Oil Minister Paula Henao said in a radio interview on Friday, adding that fuel distribution would be guaranteed.
Oil executives and workers also said the sector had avoided major infrastructure damage.
Foreign rescue teams, including some from countries that have long had tense relations with Venezuela, began arriving late on Thursday and into Friday.
Rodríguez spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday. Earlier, she and other officials met with the U.S. military’s Northern Command and disaster experts.
The United States said it was mobilising $150m in aid and easing sanctions. The U.S. military also dispatched two ships and said helicopters and aircraft would support rescue operations.
In the beachside neighbourhood of Los Corales, 50 members of an El Salvador rescue team were assessing the ruins of three 10-storey buildings using drones, heat scanners and dogs.
“People have told us they can hear people,” said Roberto Gavidia, the head of the team. “They call them on the phone and they answer, and they can hear people screaming and calling.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared a video on X showing the team preparing to enter one building. He said rescuers had located a 15-year-old trapped with her pet on the ninth floor and were working to free them.
A country already under strain
The earthquakes struck a country already weakened by years of economic crisis, political turmoil and fragile infrastructure.
“My building is uninhabitable, and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that more than 10,000 deaths were possible, which would make the disaster one of Latin America’s deadliest earthquakes of the last century.
Nearly seven million people could be affected, the UN’s migration agency said, as it supplied emergency shelter and other relief items.
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Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela. At least 589 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are believed to be trapped under rubble, as emergency crews and international rescue teams race to respond.
At least 188 people have been killed and 1,520 injured after powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said. The quakes caused widespread destruction around Caracas, collapsing buildings and trapping residents, with fears the toll could rise significantly.
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