Caracas: Rescue teams raced on Thursday to the areas hardest hit by a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked Venezuela, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000, and trapping many beneath collapsed buildings.
Wednesday evening’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike the country in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region.
The nation’s main airport was damaged and closed, while buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, located about 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Television broadcasts on Thursday showed rescue workers using power tools to work their way into piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Panicked residents of the capital poured into the streets after the quakes, and many later walked among the debris, searching for the missing amid collapsed buildings and toppled electric poles.
While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who provided the latest death toll early Thursday, said authorities were shifting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which sits north of Caracas on the coast.
Officials were trying to make the most of the daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed to remain trapped under the rubble. Rodriguez appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for these operations, adding that search and rescue teams certified by the United Nations were already on their way to Venezuela.
Footage on state TV showed three children, covered in dust but alive, being pulled from the rubble in La Guaira state, which Rodriguez described as a “disaster zone” and one of the areas hardest hit by the quakes due to the large number of destroyed structures.
Video shared online also appeared to show dozens of people, some lying on the ground and others on hospital beds, being treated outside a hospital in the coastal state. “Dozens of buildings have collapsed there … And we are currently carrying out intensive rescue operations to save lives,” Rodriguez said.
During the quakes, people ran from swaying buildings in Caracas, many visibly shocked when they turned back to see destroyed walls that left furniture visible from the street.
Columns of dust rose in two typically busy neighbourhoods in the capital. “It started off gently and then gradually grew, and in the end, we all had to leave our houses, go outside and gather together,” Caracas resident Hector Ricci said.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the first earthquake, registering a magnitude of 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast, roughly 170 kilometres west of Caracas, at a depth of 22 kilometres. Just a minute later, a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, with its epicentre located 16 kilometres southwest of Moron.
India ready to extend help: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed sadness over the devastation caused by the earthquakes in Venezuela, and said India stands ready to extend all possible assistance to the Latin American country.
