More than 50,000 people were missing Friday after twin earthquakes in Venezuela, the United Nations’ aid chief told AFP as international rescue teams and sniffer dogs arrived to join a desperate search for survivors.
Interim president Delcy Rodriguez said the death toll was now at 589, a number that is likely to “rise significantly,” according to UN aid chief Tom Fletcher.
“We’ve got over 50,000 people missing, over 500 people dead, so a massive job to go through the rubble,” he told AFP.
Rescuers used heavy machinery, but also their bare hands, in a race to claw out people caught under rubble in the worst-hit earthquake zone, north of the capital Caracas.
At one of the flattened buildings, AFP saw workers using sledgehammers to break the debris and calling for “absolute silence” to detect cries from survivors.
Oil-rich Venezuela is facing its worst natural disaster in more than a century after more than a decade of economic collapse hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.
