More than 50,000 people missing due to earthquakes in Venezuela, says UN agency

Earthquake in Venezuela: death toll rises
The number of people missing due to the earthquakes in Venezuela has now exceeded 50,000, according to the head of the United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Aid Office this Friday (26), Tom Fletcher, to the AFP news agency.
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"This is an extremely complete rescue operation. There are more than 50,000 people missing and more than 500 dead. Therefore, searching for survivors among the rubble is a colossal task," declared Tom Fletcher in a interview given to AFP in Geneva.
Fletcher also stated that he considers it likely that the death toll will "increase considerably".
This is the first official report to be released of the missing that shows the extent of the destruction caused by the earthquakes, of magnitudes 7.5 and 7.2. The Venezuelan government had mentioned 200 on Thursday, however, an unofficial count carried out by the population recorded more than 40 thousand missing.
➡ On Wednesday night (24), two earthquakes in sequence hit the northern region of the country, where Caracas is located. In addition to the deaths, the tremors collapsed buildings and left a trail of destruction in the Venezuelan capital and surrounding areas. The earthquakes were the strongest in the country in more than 100 years.
This Friday (26), the death toll was updated to 589 people, according to the Venezuelan government. The number of injured was 2,980.
The new balance was released by the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and is provisional - the United Nations (UN) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimate that the number of victims could be much higher, taking into account the strength of the earthquake, the lack of structure and the densely populated areas that were affected.
The interim president also announced that her government will "militarize" the state of La Guaira, one of the regions most affected by the earthquakes. La Guaira, a coastal area on the outskirts of Caracas, is within the so-called "disaster zone" also stipulated by the Venezuelan government.
On Thursday (25), his brother, the president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, also said that there were still 200 people trapped in the rubble. He also stated that the government has so far recorded 250 buildings that have been completely demolished or suffered damage.
Rescue teams are now struggling to find missing people and pull people out of the rubble. Groups set up by residents of the affected areas for those looking for relatives and acquaintances have already recorded more than 24,000 missing people.
On social media, there are also several reports and images of buildings that collapsed (see the video above).
Several countries, including the United States and Brazil, announced that they will send teams to assist in the search. This Friday (26), aid began to arrive in Venezuela.
Image shows destruction in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, after earthquake
Federico Parra/AFP
Video shows moment in which building collapsed in Venezuela
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The earthquakes
Understand earthquake in Venezuela
Arte/g1
The two earthquakes that shook Venezuela they occurred within an interval of less than a minute and with a difference of 5 kilometers between them. The epicenter of the strongest tremor was recorded in the Venezuelan city of El Guayabo, 168 km from the capital Caracas.
Replicas occurred in coastal cities close to the Venezuelan capital, such as La Guaira, which was heavily destroyed. Caracas international airport was also closed.
In addition to the intensity of the tremors - of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 - the shallow depth of the two tremors also explains the trail of destruction left behind. This is because the closer to the ground, the more the earthquake is felt.
The tremors also occurred in densely populated areas. A calculation made by the US Geological Survey estimated, based on these variables, that the death toll could exceed 10 thousand people.
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Source: G1