Two earthquakes, one of them measuring 7.2 in magnitude, shook Venezuela this Wednesday at 6:04 PM local time, leaving at least two buildings collapsed in the Los Palos Grandes sector of the Chacao municipality in eastern Caracas, according to a report from the scene by journalist Román Camacho.
The commissioner Luis Gonzalo, director of Polichacao, confirmed in statements from the site that in that municipality, "two structures were completely affected and more than 90 structures have damage."
In San Bernardino, part of the Libertador municipality, a building also collapsed, while in the Sucre municipality, a structure lost the walls of several floors. The Baruta municipality did not report any significant structural damage.
At 8:20 PM, rescue teams continued working on the collapsed structures in Los Palos Grandes, with reports of people trapped under the rubble.
Officials from Polichacao, Civil Protection, Caracas Firefighters, Highway Angels Paramedics, and the Bolivarian National Police were deployed to the scene.
Until that moment, the authorities did not have official figures for the deceased or injured. "At this time, we cannot provide the numbers," declared Commissioner Gonzalo when asked about the victims.
Communications were also affected: according to Camacho, the Movistar phone network was "completely collapsed," which hindered the coordination of operations and the gathering of information from other states in the country.
The epicenter of the earthquake was reported near Morón, Carabobo state, about 150 kilometers west of Caracas, at a depth of just 10 kilometers.
That shallow depth amplified the effects of the earthquake in the capital. The quake, which lasted about 51 seconds, was also felt in Colombia, Curaçao, and Aruba, and prompted the activation of a tsunami warning for Venezuela and the Caribbean. The airport in Caracas was evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Structural damage was also reported in the states of Aragua, Miranda, Anzoátegui, and Bolívar, although no precise details were available in the initial hours.
The government of Nicolás Maduro remained silent for at least an hour and a half after the event, without issuing an official report on damages and casualties, according to Tal Cual Digital.
Venezuela recorded a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in August 2018, with its epicenter in the northern part of the Paria Peninsula, which was also strongly felt in Caracas.
The Los Palos Grandes area has historically been vulnerable due to its alluvial soil, which amplifies the effects of earthquakes, and the most devastating precedent in that region remains the Four-Hundred-Year Earthquake of 1967.
Commissioner Gonzalo urged the public to remain calm and stay in open areas: "It's important to stay in open spaces due to a possible aftershock."
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