Quakes hit Venezuela

RESCUE teams were racing yesterday to the areas hardest hit by a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked Venezuela, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000 and trapping many beneath collapsed buildings.

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Wednesday evening’s 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region. The country’s main airport was damaged and closed, while buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil's Amazon, about 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) from Venezuela's capital, Caracas.

Television broadcasts yesterday showed rescue workers working their way into piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Panicked residents of the capital were sent pouring into the streets, and after the quakes many people walked among the debris searching for the missing among collapsed buildings.