Back-to-back earthquakes have killed at least 164 people in Venezuela, acting President Delcy Rodríguez says
In the capital Caracas, rescuers are searching through the rubble and people have been heard calling for help
Earlier, Rodríguez said the most affected state is La Guaira, north of Caracas, where "dozens" of buildings have collapsed. It's one of Venezuela's smallest states, but economically important
The quakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, hit a minute apart. The second was the strongest to hit Venezuela since 1900 - you can see a "shake-map" here
The US Geological Survey says thousands of people could have been killed in total - we take a look at their estimates here
My sister in Caracas sent me an audio message, writes one BBC journalist. "The house just shook horribly. It's still shaking"
BBC News Mundo, our Spanish language website, is also providing live updates
The north of Venezuela has been heavily affected after two earthquakes in short succession yesterday evening.
The Latin American country has been under much turmoil in recent months, after the US seized left-wing leader Nicolás Maduro and took him to New York to stand trial.
Venezuela has since been governed by Maduro's ally and former vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez. Learn more about the country through our guide:
A journalist in Caracas has described seeing "desperation" from people on the streets of the capital following the earthquakes, describing it as "very much chaos".
Manu Quintero tells BBC News that it felt like "the world was moving for a long time" when the earthquakes struck, adding that the two quakes felt like "one massive long earthquake".
He was speaking from the site of a collapsed 14-storey residential building, which he says contained 27 apartments, adding that rescue teams had so far found two bodies and no survivors.
The journalist says: "I saw many injured people yesterday, mostly elderly people because for them it's harder to react in a situation like that, so they are the most vulnerable of all of them."
Earlier, BBC Verify analysed footage showing the collapse of Hotel Eduard's in La Guaira state, which once stood 10 storeys tall.
Before and after pictures give a sense of the damage, with the building now reduced to rubble.
Image source, ReutersMarco Rubio speaks with members of the media in Bahrain
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he has spoken to Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez and explains US response to the earthquakes in Venezuela will be "big, it'll be fast, and it'll be effective".
Speaking to the media, he says the US is already deploying search and rescue teams from Virginia and Los Angeles, adding that Venezuela will need a lot of help searching collapsed buildings.
He says the airport in the Venezuelan capital Caracas has been damaged and explains one of its runways has been cracked.
Germany is ready to deploy six military aircraft to help with relief efforts and Switzerland will send 80 rescuers, eight rescue dogs and 18 tonnes of equipment.
The Netherlands has also said it will allocate €2m (£1.7m) to send a rescue team to Venezuela. Spain and France have also offered to send rescue workers.
China and India say they are ready to help Venezuela.
Image source, Getty ImagesAs search and rescue operations continue in Venezuela, the names of people yet to be located are circulating online.
People's names, photos and addresses are being shared, asking if anyone has seen them or has any information.
Separately, the Central University of Venezuela has released a list of students who are missing following the earthquakes, with many living in La Guaira, according to local reports.
Venezuelan newspaper El Carabobeño has published the names of 39 students who are reportedly missing from the university.
Venezuelan beauty queen Mística Núñez, a popular figure in Venezuela after being crowned Miss World Venezuela, has shared more than a dozen stories on her platform of people who are trapped or missing.
Image source, ReutersInternet users in Venezuela have regained access to X following the two earthquakes that struck the country last night, BBC News Mundo reports.
The platform had been censored in the country by a state order in August 2024.
Accounts on the social media site specialising in avoiding censorship report the block as being lifted by internet and phone operators CANTV, Thundernet, Digitel and Movistar.
The government has not officially commented on the reports of users being able to access to X.
Earlier, the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela called for the country’s telecommunications regulator to "fully unblock access to social media and all media outlets" so people could gain information.
Mark Poynting
Climate and science reporter
Venezuela was hit by a “doublet” sequence of earthquakes, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). This is where two earthquakes of a similar magnitude strike shortly after one another in a similar place.
In this case, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake was followed by a larger 7.5-magnitude quake just 38 seconds later.
The USGS says this suggests "a complex, rupture-interaction process" - effectively where one earthquake helps to trigger another one nearby.
This is different to the typical sequence of earthquakes, where a larger earthquake is followed by much smaller aftershocks.
Having two large earthquakes so close together in time is particularly unusual, but doublets aren’t unprecedented in this part of the world.
Northern Venezuela was also hit by a doublet in September 2025, according to the USGS.
The quakes were much weaker, at 6.2 and 6.3-magnitude, but still caused at least one death and more than 100 injuries, it says.
The Turkey-Syria earthquakes of February 2023, which killed more than 55,000 people, were also a doublet sequence.
Eyewitness shows extent of damage inside building
By Tom Gould
We have verified footage of a man filming while walking down the shattered stairway of a residential building in the coastal town of Caraballeda in Venezuela’s La Guaira state, seemingly recorded moments after the back-to-back earthquakes struck.
The extent of the damage becomes increasingly severe as he descends. His video shows holes in the side of the building and corridors covered in rubble on the lower floors.
We have confirmed the location where the video was filmed using satellite imagery and the video’s recency by carrying out a reverse image search of screenshots, to establish when it was first shared online.
These checks are important following incidents like this, as we have seen viral videos circulating on social media which are from older earthquakes in different countries.
It's just past 08:00 in Venezuela and more pictures are emerging showing the aftermath of yesterday's back-to-back earthquakes as the sun rises.
Some people can be seen leaving heavily damaged buildings carrying what appear to be personal belongings. Others are just sitting, observing the devastating scenes of rubble around them.
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesCatia La Mar, La Guaira state
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesCaracas
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesCatia La Mar, La Guaira state
Image source, Getty ImagesCatia La Mar, La Guaira state
Image source, Getty ImagesCatia La Mar, La Guaira state
Daniel Gonzalez Cappa
Image source, Getty ImagesLa Guaira's Los Olivos neighborhood pictured in October 2025
As we've been reporting, acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared the state of La Guaira a "disaster zone". Images and videos circulating on social media show collapsed buildings and devastation.
La Guaira is one of Venezuela's smallest states, but an economically important one. Situated along the central northern coast, on the Caribbean Sea, just a few miles north of Caracas, it is a popular destination for visitors from the capital.
The state is also home to one of the country's two main ports and to Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela's main airport.
The images coming out of the area today a reminder of another catastrophe that struck in December 1999, when torrential rains triggered a series of landslides. The death toll back then was in the thousands.
La Guaira never fully recovered from those landslides. Even today, the enormous rocks that destroyed buildings are still there.
Image source, Getty ImagesBoth the Red Cross and the United Nations have mobilised assistance for Venezuela following the earthquakes.
The Red Cross says that "full human impact" of the Venezuelan earthquakes is not yet known, adding that its Venezuelan branch is "operational and responding".
In a statement online, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says the "most urgent anticipated needs" are search and rescue as well emergency shelter and health care.
The federation adds safe water and sanitation, alongside essential household items, are expected to be priorities in the days ahead.
Tom Fletcher, the UN's under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, says in an update a rapid response team was being prepared to support its existing team in Venezuela.
He adds that the disaster "risks deepening existing vulnerabilities", saying eight million people were already in need of humanitarian support in the country before the earthquakes, and urges a "massive collective effort" to support the government-led response.
We can bring you some more information now from Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
Speaking on the state-run television channel Venezolana de Televisión, Rodríguez says there have been 30 aftershocks following the two earthquakes.
She confirms that 164 people have been registered as killed by the earthquakes, with 971 injured.
Rodríguez adds that a fund of $200m (£152m) has been created from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to aid the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and homes.
Image source, Getty ImagesDelcy Rodriguez, pictured in April
By Adam Durbin and Rachel Flynn
Internet connectivity in Venezuela has been significantly affected by the earthquakes, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.
As of 08:00 BST (03:00 local time) connectivity had recovered to about 77% of normal capacity - having fallen to 59% shortly after the earthquakes hit.
The 08:00 data is the latest available from NetBlocks.
NetBlocks says the widespread issues “corresponds to power cuts and infrastructure damage, hindering rescue efforts and limiting visibility into events on the ground”.
The disruption to the internet, combined with the relatively rural location of the earthquakes’ epicentre, is likely a significant factor contributing to the concentration of social media footage we are seeing from the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.
Separately, the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has called for the country’s telecommunications regulator to "fully unblock access to social media and all media outlets", adding that “access to information will be a matter of life and death”.
Venezuela ranked 159 out of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, which ranks 180 countries on the ability for journalists to work without interference or threats.
Image source, NetBlocksMark Poynting
Climate and science reporter
The outer layer of the Earth is divided into different sections called tectonic plates - a bit like the Earth’s puzzle pieces.
These plates move very slowly - perhaps only a few centimetres a year, which is roughly the same rate as your fingernails grow.
Northern Venezuela sits on the boundary of the Caribbean and South American plates.
As they move relative to one another, parts of the plates can get “stuck”, and stress builds up over a long period of time.
Eventually, this stress becomes too much and the plates jolt or slip back into place.
That releases the huge amounts of energy experienced as an earthquake.
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Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent
Image source, ReutersThis is a big test for the government of Delcy Rodriguez and for the Trump administration.
Since the US military intervention in January, when the former dictator Nicolas Maduro was abducted and flown to the US, his former deputy, Rodriguez has been running the country.
But with the US controlling the country’s vital oil revenues, Venezuela has become a vassal state, heavily dependent on decisions taken far away in Washington.
Members of the US Congress have complained about a lack of transparency over how Venezuela’s oil revenues are managed and audited, as well as the lack of moves towards a democratic transition.
In January, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said Venezuela said the Maduro regime had been characterised by "corruption and graft".
It’s not clear what, if anything, has changed since then. Suffice to say that Venezuela is unlikely to be well equipped to deal with a disaster on this scale.
The number of deaths from the earthquakes that struck Venezuela last night now stands at 164, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez has said, according to Reuters and AFP.
Nicole Kolster
Reporting from Caracas for BBC News Mundo
“How do you go back to living like this? This is like something out of a movie - I’ve never seen anything like it in my life… when I got here [to Los Palos Grandes] I was in shock,” says a woman sitting on the steps of a square who isn’t even trying to fall asleep.
It’s past 05:00 in the morning. In Caracas, in Los Palos Grandes—a residential area where buildings have collapsed—hundreds are sleeping (or trying to) in squares, on the streets, or in vehicles parked along the avenues.
People can be seen lying on the ground with sheets they managed to bring out from their homes - there is a lot of fear of aftershocks.
Other families are holding their pets in their arms.
Many here are watching over the rescue efforts and waiting for news about their loved ones who may have been trapped under the rubble. Some cars are blocked in.
This is one of the most affected areas of Caracas.
The mayor of the Chacao municipality, Gustavo Duque, reports at least 11 fatalities as of the time of writing.
Image source, ReutersIt has now been around 12 hours since a pair of earthquakes struck Venezuela shortly after 18:00 local time on Wednesday (23:00 BST), affecting numerous areas including the capital city of Caracas.
'A significant loss to life'
At least 32 people have died and some 700 have been injured after the two quakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez said.
The executive director of the UN Office for Project Services Jorge Moreira da Silva says reports indicate "a significant loss to life, widespread injuries, and severe damage to homes and vital infrastructure" in Caracas and elsewhere.
La Guaira deemed a 'disaster zone'
Rodríguez said in her update early on Thursday that the total number of casualties did not include any figures from the state of La Guaira - which she said was most affected and called a "disaster zone".
Images from La Guaira show rubble from buildings that have fallen, including a collapsed hotel.
Damages across several states
Our BBC reporter Vanessa Silva says damage has been reported in different Venezuelan states, while concerns have been raised about getting information given the state of Venezuela's power network.
Our colleague Jorge Perez from BBC News Mundo was texting a friend in Caracas when he heard the first reports of the earthquakes.
He says that while earthquakes are a regular occurrence in Venezuela due to it being a seismic area, Wednesday's quakes are still "quite shocking".
Perez has been able to chat with some of his friends in the Venezuelan capital who "cannot sleep" out of fear and nerves.
One of the main issues, Perez adds, has been the struggle to get information: "The country has a very serious crisis with the electric network so it's very common to have power outages almost every day."
He says the situation is also stressful for the millions of Venezuelans living abroad who are unable to get in touch with their loved ones.
Image source, Getty ImagesRescuers continuing to search the rubble in Caracas following Wednesday's earthquakes
