32 Dead, Hundreds Injured as Twin Earthquakes Devastate Venezuela

NO fewer than 32 people have lost their lives and more than 700 have been injured after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela in quick succession, collapsing buildings and sending terrified residents flooding into the streets of Caracas.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency on Thursday morning as rescue workers scrambled to search for survivors amid piles of rubble across the capital and surrounding regions.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed that two tremors—measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5—hit the same area of Venezuela on Wednesday, with the second, more powerful quake striking just 39 seconds after the first.

“The stairs came away, the whole wall cracked. Things fell from the ceiling. It was horrible,” said 54-year-old bank employee Odalis Escalona, describing the terrifying moment her building began to crumble.

In the capital’s upmarket Altamira neighbourhood, a 22-storey building was completely destroyed. Emergency workers and volunteers clambered over the debris, calling out names of the missing as frantic relatives looked on.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged residents to leave their homes and confirmed that gas supplies had been cut to several buildings as a precautionary measure.

“We have some damaged structures, and we don’t want any kind of accident involving gas to occur,” he said.

The country’s main airport, Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, has been closed indefinitely after suffering “serious damage” to its infrastructure, according to Rodriguez. Social media images have shown the terminal’s facilities severely compromised.

The hardest-hit regions include the states of Trujillo, Carabobo, Miranda and La Guaira—the latter located close to the capital. Rodriguez admitted she did not yet have complete data on casualties in La Guaira, describing it as the “hardest-hit region”.

Terror in the Capital

Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos and panic as the twin tremors struck. At a shopping centre in Caracas, screams rang out as shoppers and staff scrambled for safety.

“It was unbelievable, I don’t even know how long it lasted,” said shopkeeper Heidi Romero, 42, who was on the top floor when the quake hit. “We went out through the emergency stairs; that’s how they got us out.”

Carmen Guedez, 69, was in the same room as her bedridden sister when she felt the initial jolt. “It kept getting stronger,” she recalled. “I started to see the windows begin to move and then everything shook.”

She described how she “huddled together” with her sister and a neighbour, adding: “We couldn’t get out. The neighbours are still out on the street.”

The tremors were felt as far afield as Bogota, the Colombian capital, where alarms were triggered and some buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

Freddy Tovar, coordinator of Colombia’s National Seismological Network, said they had received more than 200 reports of tremors nationwide. In a video posted to X, he warned that aftershocks could follow and “could also be widely felt across Colombian territory”.

International Response

US President Donald Trump offered America’s assistance late on Wednesday, writing on his Truth Social platform: “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.

He added: “The U.S.A. stands ready, willing, and able to help! I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly.”

The US National Tsunami Warning Center moved swiftly to rule out any tsunami risk, posting on X: “NO tsunami, NO danger from a recent earthquake.”

Colombia’s disaster management agency UNGRD also confirmed there was no threat of a tsunami following the quakes.

A History of Seismic Activity

Earthquake-prone Venezuela has experienced devastating tremors in its recent history. In 1997, a quake in the northeast killed 73 people, while 236 people died in Caracas in 1967.

In a separate development, a 7.2-magnitude tremor also struck northern Japan shortly after the Venezuelan quakes on Wednesday, though no casualties or material damage have been reported.

Rodriguez confirmed that 20 aftershocks have already followed the twin earthquakes, raising fears of further destruction as rescue efforts continue.

Emergency services have warned that the death toll could rise as teams gain access to more affected areas and continue their search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings across the nation.