A pair of powerful earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 7.0 struck Venezuela back-to-back, just 39 seconds apart, toppling high-rise buildings and prompting officials to warn that casualties could run into the tens of thousands.
Greek seismologist Efthymios Lekkas confirmed the rapid succession of tremors, which caused widespread structural failure across the region, including the total collapse of 22-storey residential towers and severe damage to the main international airport, now forced to close.
Vasiliki Kakalanou, a Greek expatriate living on the 14th floor of a Caracas high-rise, described the experience as a living nightmare.
"Suddenly, our phones received a screeching emergency alert warning of a 6.2 magnitude quake," she said. "Before we could even comprehend the message, the first major shock wave hit, immediately followed by an even more violent second tremor."
Cut off from electricity and communications, Mrs. Kakalanou and her husband remained immobilised as the building swayed.
While their immediate neighbourhood escaped fatal damage, she said residential buildings just two kilometres away had collapsed into rubble, with the worst destruction concentrated in nearby La Guaira.
Emergency crews are conducting live-televised rescue operations, clawing through collapsed concrete in search of survivors trapped beneath the debris.
Local authorities have warned that the official death toll is expected to rise sharply as search efforts expand into the hardest-hit coastal and metropolitan zones.
By Panagiotis Georgiou