Star Metro - Venezuela twin quakes kill at least 32, injure hundreds

Venezuela's strongest earthquake since 1900 sent rescuers and locals clambering in the dark over flattened buildings, hunting for survivors and extracting people from under the ruins.

Countries including the US, China and India offered to urgently send help after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said struck areas west of the capital on Wednesday evening.

Interim president Delcy Rodriguez said the 32 dead and over 700 wounded did not include the hard-hit state of La Guaira, raising the possibility the toll could climb.

"We have nothing, right now we have nothing, not even the strength or the courage to go in there, just imagine," Larry Rojas, 49, told AFP, standing in front of a collapsed building where his family was trapped in La Guaira city of Catia la Mar.

Catia la Mar, a coastal city, was without electricity and many residents spent the night in the streets or searching for their relatives, according to AFP reporters.

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake that hit Venezuela was the most powerful since October 29, 1900, when a 7.7-magnitude quake hit offshore.

- 'No one saving them' -

After Wednesday's shock, some residential buildings showed large cracks and fallen walls, with dozens others destroyed, according to AFP reporters.

"There are people alive in there and no one is coming to save them," said a woman waiting for news of her daughter, who was buried in a ruined 12-story building.

The European Union, Spain, Italy, China, India and most Latin American countries have expressed solidarity and offered aid.

The United States was "immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

The first quake, with an epicenter 21 kilometers (13 miles) west of the coastal town of Moron, occurred at 2204 GMT, USGS said. Within a minute, a 7.5-magnitude quake struck about 45 kilometers away.

"This earthquake was the second event in a doublet. This magnitude 7.5 mainshock was preceded by 39 seconds by a 7.2 foreshock," USGS said.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello asked people to leave their homes, adding that gas supplies had been cut to several buildings as a precaution.

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

The Maiquetia International Airport, located near Caracas, was closed due to "serious damage" to its infrastructure, Rodriguez said, with social media posts showing its severely damaged facilities.

The quakes triggered panic in the capital and drove people into the streets, AFP journalists saw.

"The stairs came away, the whole wall cracked. Things fell from the ceiling. It was horrible," said 54-year-old bank employee Odalis Escalona.

An AFP journalist saw a 22-story building completely destroyed in the capital's Altamira neighborhood, where people cried out relatives' names as volunteers climbed over the rubble.

"We need flashlights," one of them said.

- 'We couldn't get out' -

The tremors struck at a depth of 22 kilometers and 10 kilometers, respectively.

They prompted screams of panic at a shopping center in Caracas, an AFP journalist observed.

"It was unbelievable, I don't even know how long it lasted," said shopkeeper Heidi Romero, who was on the top floor when the quake struck.

"We went out through the emergency stairs; that's how they got us out," the 42-year-old told AFP.

Many more in the capital exited buildings and waited outside before returning to their offices and homes.

Carmen Guedez, 69, was in the same room as her bedridden sister when she felt the jolt.

"It kept getting stronger," said the administrator, who lives in a hilly middle-class neighborhood above the capital. "I started to see the windows begin to move and then everything shook."

She described how she "huddled together" with her sister and a neighbor, adding that "we couldn't get out. The neighbors are still out on the street."

The states of Trujillo, Carabobo, Miranda and La Guaira were the hardest hit, according to Cabello.

The quake was felt as far away as the Colombian capital of Bogota, where alarms sounded and some residents evacuated buildings as a precaution.

Freddy Tovar, coordinator of Colombia's National Seismological Network, said they had received more than 200 reports of tremors nationwide.

"The conditions of this seismic event mean that some aftershocks may occur, which could also be widely felt across Colombian territory," he said in a video posted on X.

The strongest tremors in earthquake-prone Venezuela's recent history occurred in the northeast in 1997, killing 73 people, and in Caracas in 1967, when 236 people died.

O.Poirier--SMC