At least 164 people have died and 971 have been injured due to a series of earthquakes in Venezuela, according to reports on June 25.
Delsy Rodriguez, the interim president of Venezuela, announced that the casualties resulted from two earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 that struck the country around 6 p.m. the previous day. This marks a significant increase from the earlier reported figures of 32 dead and 700 injured.
The Venezuelan government has declared a state of emergency and has intensified rescue operations, with support from the international community.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the first earthquake occurred at 6:04 p.m. in the western region of Morón, a coastal town in northern Venezuela. A second quake, measuring 7.5, struck approximately 45 kilometers southwest of the first epicenter just 39 seconds later.
The New York Times reported that this earthquake is the most powerful to hit Venezuela's mainland or nearby coast since a 7.7 magnitude quake on October 29, 1900.
The USGS indicated that the damage from this earthquake could be significantly greater than that of the 126-year-old quake. Their predictive models estimate a 40% chance of fatalities ranging from 10,000 to 100,000, with a 14% likelihood of exceeding 100,000 deaths.
Diosdado Cabello, the Minister of the Interior, stated, "We are mobilizing all available resources for security and civilian support. Firefighters and police have been fully deployed."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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