Venezuela earthquake: Death toll reaches 1,450 as rescuers race against time to find survivors

The death toll from the twin earthquakes in Venezuela this week rose to at least 1,450 on Sunday as rescue teams raced against time to find more survivors. Foreign rescue teams, including those from the US, Mexico, and Colombia, poured into La Guaira, the hardest-hit state by Wednesday’s twin magnitude earthquakes.

The death toll is expected to rise in the coming days as the rescue teams dig through the piles of sand and rubble left behind by the dozens of collapsed buildings in the coastal state.

Venezuela confirm 1,450 deaths

"We must report that the number of fatalities has reached 1,450 people, women and men who lost their lives as a result of the most brutal natural catastrophe that our country has ever suffered in its history," interim President Delcy Rodriguez was quoted as saying by AFP.

Some 3,150 people remained injured, 12,721 have been displaced, and 774 buildings have collapsed, she said.

Search continues

Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of the interim president, said rescue teams remained active trying to find survivors before it is too late.

"Each life saved is a miracle; each life saved is the answer to the effort of thousands of people to whom we will be forever grateful," he said in a televised speech.

"We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, to their residences can stay."

Why first 72 hours are critical

The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America's deadliest of the last century.

"There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive," Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, told Reuters.

The government said at least 33 people had been rescued by Saturday evening, including several children, while tens of thousands remained unaccounted for.

Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country's political opposition on Sunday, a slight decline from 55,000 people a day earlier.

Millions more people were feared to lack access to sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquakes.

Some 774 buildings were badly damaged in back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on Wednesday evening, including 189 buildings that have totally collapsed.

International rescue teams in Venezuela

So far, twenty-four nations have sent 521 tons of supplies, 86 units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble, and more than 2,700 search-and-rescue personnel.

The United States said Saturday that one runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport, which serves the capital, was partially functioning to receive US military planes, while a naval ship had arrived off the coast. The US has also sent a 250-strong disaster response team.

Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters -- a period which has now passed in Venezuela -- are the narrow window for finding the living. After that, the search usually becomes one of recovering bodies.