Venezuela quake death toll climbs as rescue teams race to reach trapped survivors

The official death toll from the powerful earthquakes that struck northwestern Venezuela last night has reached at least 188, with 1,520 people injured. Authorities and rescue agencies warn the numbers are likely to rise sharply in the coming hours, and a US Geological Survey forecasting model says the scale of destruction and local building conditions could eventually push the number of dead above 10,000.

Venezuelan officials also say at least 200 people are trapped and are now in critical condition, awaiting urgent rescue from beneath the rubble. In La Guaira, residents are pleading for faster action, saying survivors remain buried while help is slow to arrive. One woman told the BBC, in tears while waiting for news of her daughter, “There are living people there and no one has come to help them.” Her daughter was trapped under the remains of a 12-story apartment building that collapsed completely.

Social media videos showed the damage to the country’s strategic energy infrastructure. In footage from a local refining and petrochemical complex, huge storage tanks can be seen as the quake hits, while a large volume of liquid spills over and floods the outside walls of the tanks. Workers and passersby are seen watching the leak and structural damage with alarm.

Venezuela was struck by two especially strong earthquakes in less than a minute, first a magnitude 7.2 quake and then a 7.5 aftershock. The epicenter was in Yaracuy state, which contains many of the country’s key refining and energy facilities. The tremors were felt strongly in Caracas and caused widespread building collapses, prompting an immediate national emergency declaration.