The official death toll from twin earthquakes that flattened parts of Caracas and surrounding areas rose to 920, president of the national assembly Jorge Rodriguez said on Friday.
The government has estimated hundreds of people are still trapped and missing nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160km west of Caracas.
A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had over 50,000 listed as of midday on Friday. The UN’s aid chief gave a similar tally.
Foreign rescue teams and aid began arriving on Friday, as desperate Venezuelans and a growing number of foreign volunteers raced to find survivors trapped under rubble.
Rodriguez said 871 international rescue workers were in the country on Friday afternoon. Countries sending crews include Mexico, El Salvador and Spain.
The US Geological Survey has predicted there is a high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the past century.
The disaster hit a country weakened by years of economic turmoil, which left much of its infrastructure fragile and complicated rescue efforts as aftershocks rattled the capital and surrounding coastal areas.
Rodriguez said on Thursday 250 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
At least eight hospitals, the headquarters of the Venezuelan Red Cross and the French embassy were among buildings reported to have been badly damaged.
Interior minister Diosdado Cabello said about 70,000 families in La Guaira state had been affected.
La Guaira, the coastal state adjoining Caracas and home to the capital’s main airport, was among the hardest-hit areas.
“It has become a disaster zone,” interim president Delcy Rodriguez said, adding the government was working with private companies to bring in heavy equipment and speed up rescues.
Electricity remained scarce in parts of the state, while the Caracas airport was closed after suffering damage. Witness videos from the terminal showed scenes of panic as ceiling panels crashed down.
Emergency workers and volunteers searched through collapsed buildings into the night on Thursday and Friday. However, in some areas residents said official help had been slow to arrive.
Yamileth Jimenez, a resident of La Guaira city, said her 19-year-old son was trapped in the debris of their seven-storey apartment building.
“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” said Jimenez, whose father died three days earlier.
In La Guaira city, volunteers dug through wreckage with their hands while families waited for news of missing relatives. Along the Caracas-La Guaira highway, streams of civilians headed towards the coast carrying water, food and medicine, stepping in as the scale of the disaster overwhelmed initial rescue efforts.
“We lost everything. We have no food or medicines. We hope help arrives quickly,” said Pedro Perez, 64, an upholstery workshop owner who said he had lost his home and business and was sleeping on the street with his wife and children.
Residents rush outside
Many Venezuelans were at home when the quakes struck during a public holiday. Residents rushed out of shaking buildings and into the streets as structures swayed or collapsed across Caracas and nearby coastal communities.
“When we went downstairs, the scene was like a horror movie,” said Maria Alejandra, a Caracas resident who did not give her surname.
Near the epicentre in Moron, a seaside town in Carabobo state, houses crumpled and residents were left without water or electricity.
About 200 families living in a damaged residential complex in Moron were salvaging what belongings they could find, including mattresses, television sets and washing machines. Some planned to stay with relatives, while others were waiting for the government to open shelters.
Denis Sequera, 47, said her five-year-old granddaughter helped guide her 79-year-old father to safety when the shaking began, while Sequera helped her 70-year-old mother.
“She kept telling my dad, ‘Grandpa, get out, put your hands over your head,’ and she led him into the yard,” Sequera said. “We couldn’t go back inside. We slept outside and are waiting for help.”
Countries around the world pledged support, even some that have opposed Venezuela, which has suffered decades of international isolation amid a spiral of political repression, economic collapse and diplomatic pressure.
Rodriguez thanked leaders including US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for their help.
Washington moved to ease sanctions, authorising transactions related to earthquake aid that would otherwise be prohibited.
Trump said the US was “ready, willing and able to help”. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington would send rescue teams while the Pentagon would help with logistics and support Caracas’ damaged airport.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the organisation was co-ordinating international rescue teams and “a massive collective effort” would be needed in a country where 8-million people required humanitarian assistance before the quake.
The UN’s Venezuelan human rights mission urged the government to lift restrictions on some social media, calling connectivity a “matter of life and death”.
SpaceX’s Starlink said it would provide free service through to July 25 for new and existing customers in affected areas and was working to deploy terminals to the hardest-hit zones to help restore communications.
In the country’s economically vital oil sector, foreign energy companies said their operations had not suffered major disruption and oil infrastructure appeared largely spared.
• This article has been updated with the latest information.
Reuters