Venezuela Earthquake: Death Toll Nears 3,000 as Rescue Operations Continue

Venezuelan authorities announced that the death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 has risen to 2,954.

The Venezuelan Ministry of Information reported on Saturday that the number of injured had reached 16,592, and that approximately 16,000 people were left homeless. In a statement, it noted that search and rescue teams had managed to save 6,462 people.

It added that around 30,000 rescue officials, alongside 3,281 international rescue personnel, had been deployed to assist those affected, emphasizing that rescue operations to search for survivors were still ongoing.

The two successive earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, caused entire residential complexes to collapse, marking them among the worst seismic disasters in Latin American history.

One of the strongest tremors caused the collapse of 190 buildings, most of them in the coastal La Guaira region north of the capital, Caracas.

Two days after the disaster, the United Nations stated that more than 50,000 people remained missing, while the United Nations Development Programme announced on June 24 that the cost of direct material damage caused by the twin earthquakes was estimated at approximately $6.7 billion.

More than 10 days after the disaster, families are struggling to recover the bodies of their children from under the rubble, with some survivors miraculously found this week.