Watch: Venezuela twin quakes kill at least 164, topple buildings

Updated 12.55pm

A twin earthquake that was Venezuela's largest in over a century has killed at least 164 people and destroyed multiple buildings near the capital, where residents searched Thursday for missing relatives.

Venezuela's strongest earthquake since 1900 sent rescuers and locals clambering in the dark over flattened apartments, hunting for survivors and extracting people from under the ruins.

France, Spain and the US offered to urgently send rescuers after the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, struck areas west of the capital on Wednesday evening.

The toll has climbed quickly, with interim president Delcy Rodriguez reporting at least 164 dead and over 970 hurt and noting the state of La Guaira, north of Caracas, was hit hard.

On Wednesday, Rodriguez declared a state of emergency as the two massive earthquakes forced the closure of the country's main airport, prompting US President Donald Trump to offer aid.

Rodriguez said 20 aftershocks had followed the earthquakes. The quakes triggered panic in the capital and drove people into the streets, AFP journalists saw.

"The stairs came away, the whole wall cracked. Things fell from the ceiling. It was horrible," said 54-year-old bank employee Odalis Escalona.

It remained unknown if there were fatalities, but some people were injured, and buildings had collapsed, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.

Trump said late Wednesday that "the two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths."

"The US stands ready, willing, and able to help! I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly," the American president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good!!!"

An AFP journalist saw a 22-story building completely destroyed in the capital's Altamira neighbourhood, where people cried out relatives' names as volunteers climbed over the rubble.

"We need flashlights," one of them said.

The first quake, with an epicentre 21 kilometres west of the coastal town of Moron, occurred at 2204 GMT, USGS said. Within a minute, a 7.5-magnitude quake struck about 45 kilometres away.

"This earthquake was the second event in a doublet. This magnitude 7.5 mainshock was preceded by 39 seconds by a 7.2 foreshock," USGS said.

Cabello asked people to leave their homes, adding that gas supplies had been cut to several buildings as a precaution.

"We have some damaged structures, and we don't want any kind of accident involving gas to occur," he said.

The Maiquetia International Airport, located near Caracas, was closed due to "serious damage" to its infrastructure, Rodriguez said, with social media posts showing its severely damaged facilities.

'We couldn't get out'

The tremors struck at a depth of 22 kilometres and 10 kilometres, respectively.

They prompted screams of panic at a shopping centre in Caracas, an AFP journalist observed.

"It was unbelievable, I don't even know how long it lasted," said shopkeeper Heidi Romero, who was on the top floor when the quake struck.

"We went out through the emergency stairs; that's how they got us out," the 42-year-old told AFP.

Dozens more in the capital exited buildings and waited outside before returning to their offices and homes.

Carmen Guedez, 69, was in the same room as her bedridden sister when she felt the jolt.

"It kept getting stronger," said the administrator, who lives in a hilly middle-class neighbourhood above the capital. "I started to see the windows begin to move and then everything shook."

She described how she "huddled together" with her sister and a neighbour, adding that "we couldn't get out. The neighbours are still out on the street."

The states of Trujillo, Carabobo, Miranda and La Guaira were the hardest hit, according to Cabello.

Further afield

The quake was felt as far away as the Colombian capital of Bogota, where alarms sounded, and some residents evacuated buildings as a precaution.

Freddy Tovar, coordinator of Colombia's National Seismological Network, said they had received more than 200 reports of tremors nationwide.

"The conditions of this seismic event mean that some aftershocks may occur, which could also be widely felt across Colombian territory," he said in a video posted on X.

The Colombian disaster management agency UNGRD ruled out the possibility of a tsunami taking place in the aftermath.

"NO tsunami, NO danger from a recent earthquake," the US National Tsunami Warning Centre said in an X post.

The strongest tremors in earthquake-prone Venezuela's recent history occurred in the northeast in 1997, killing 73 people, and in Caracas in 1967, when 236 people died.

Shortly after the twin quakes on Wednesday, a 7.2-magnitude tremor hit northern Japan, the country's weather agency said, with no casualties or material damage reported.