Venezuela earthquakes live: Death toll soars to 235 with 40,000 missing as emergency crews search for survivors

Authorities warned the death toll was likely to run into the thousands as the back-to-back tremors collapsed buildings across the capital Caracas and surrounding areas.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160km west of Caracas and it was followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, the US Geological Survey said, adding that the death toll would most likely exceed 10,000.

Venezeula’s Ministry of Communication and Information has shared photos of acting President Delcy Rodríguez overseeing rescue efforts after the country was devastated by back-to-back earthquakes.

The United Nations will “mobilize the capabilities of its system and its agencies” to help Venezuelans in the aftermath of back-to-back earthquakes, the country’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has said.

“I have spoken with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, who has expressed to me his deepest solidarity with the Venezuelan people and his condolences for the tragedy that is mourning Venezuela”, Rodríguez wrote on X.

In a follow-up post, the Venezuelan interim president said the UN “has expressed to us its full willingness to mobilize the capabilities of its system and its agencies, with the purpose of supporting the efforts to address the emergency that our country is facing”.

US ​President Trump has offered help to his “great friends” in Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes left dozens of people dead.​

“The two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths”, Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The U.S.A. stands ready, willing, and able to help!​”

A survivor of the earthquakes in Venezuela has recalled his harrowing escape.

“I thought I was going to die. You could hear pieces of concrete breaking off the walls”, Billy Ebrin of Caracas told Al Jazeera.

Ebrin and hundreds of his neighbors ran to the ground floor of his apartment building when the shaking from the back-to-back earthquakes stopped.

“People were bumping into each other in the confusion: elderly people, people carrying their pets, even squirrels and parrots”, Ebrin said. “There were people in their underwear”.

Ebrin called the experience “terrifying”.

The death toll from the Venezuela earthquakes now sits at roughly 235, the country’s health minister said and reported by the Associated Press.

The number injured now sits at 4,300.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has announced that his country has deployed “nine tons of equipment to assist in the search and rescue of victims” affected by the two earthquakes in Venezuela.

Lula said the equipment will be sent on Friday with 36 firefighters and eight technicians.

“On Saturday, we will send another flight with equipment for setting up a field hospital, one hundred solar-powered water purifiers, medications, and medical supplies for surgeries.

“We will continue to monitor the progress of the rescue operations for the victims in order to provide all necessary support to our Venezuelan brothers and sisters”, the Brazilian leader wrote on X.

Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, has emphasized the importance of rescue efforts following the two devastating earthquakes.

“This is the time to rescue people and attend to those under the rubble”, he said, per the country’s Ministry of Communication and Information.