The death toll from last week’s two powerful back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to 1,943, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez has said….
The death toll from last week’s two powerful back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to 1,943, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez has said.
In an address broadcast on state television on Tuesday, Rodriguez also disclosed that 10,571 people have been injured as rescue and recovery operations continue across affected regions, TRT World reported.
He added that emergency teams have successfully rescued 6,461 people since the twin disasters struck, while warning that the actual number of affected persons could be significantly higher.
Rodriguez said the real figure was likely closer to 20,000, noting that thousands more people in the hardest-hit La Guaira state may have been trapped beneath rubble but managed to escape.
“Were able to get out on their own or with the help of friends and family.”
According to him, many survivors were not immediately captured in official rescue tallies due to the chaotic nature of the disaster and the widespread destruction across communities.
The earthquakes, which measured magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck Venezuela on 24 June, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), triggering widespread devastation across several states.
In a separate assessment, researchers at the United States space agency NASA reported that approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed in the twin earthquakes, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian crisis facing the country.
