Powerful earthquakes rocked areas west of Venezuela’s capital on Thursday, causing buildings to crumble and prompting scientists to predict significant casualties and widespread devastation throughout the South American nation.
The initial earthquake, registering a magnitude of 7.2, was followed by an even stronger 7.5 tremor less than a minute later, both occurring approximately 160 kilometers from Caracas, as reported by the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The USGS warned of the potential for “extensive damage and high casualties,” with initial estimates of fatalities ranging between 10,000 and 100,000 as the disaster’s impact is expected to be far-reaching.
Authorities have yet to release official figures regarding the number of deaths or injuries.
On state television, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello confirmed, “Several buildings have collapsed in Caracas, and many homes have been destroyed.”
Video footage showed emergency workers climbing into the ruins of one collapsed building in the capital as night began to fall.
Many Venezuelans were at home when the quakes hit, celebrating a public holiday commemorating an 1821 military victory which secured Venezuela’s independence from Spain.
“As soon as it started, we began hearing people screaming,” Astrid Ramirez, a 41-year-old publicist in western Caracas, said. “Everyone was running down the stairs.”
Venezuela sits on a seismically active tectonic region where the Caribbean Plate collides with the South American Plate.
Residents in the capital, which was also rocked by a deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 1967, rushed to evacuate as the quake shook buildings.
“There was a very loud crash. Things fell in the house, jugs inside the refrigerator. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said Coro Martinez, 56, who lives in eastern Caracas.
Maria Romero, an 80-year-old pensioner on the south side of Caracas, said that the police helped her get out. “This earthquake was horrible, even worse than the one in 1967,” she added.
Fire trucks could be seen on the streets in the capital, and the facades of some buildings had suffered significant damage.
The US Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami threat for Puerto Rico and the US and British Virgin Islands following the earthquake, adding that islands off the coast of Venezuela — Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire — could also be hit by hazardous waves. It withdrew the warning within about an hour.