Venezuela earthquakes: More than 50,000 missing after deadly twin quakes

Over 50,000 people are unaccounted for and thousands have been injured after Venezuela was rocked by two powerful tremors in quick succession.

Over 50,000 people are unaccounted for and thousands have been injured after Venezuela was rocked by two powerful tremors in quick succession.

The quakes had magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, hitting an area west of the capital Caracas and could be felt in Bogota, Colombia.

At least 235 people have been confirmed dead, but officials expect that to rise significantly – possibly into the thousands.

A website which allows people to report where their family members were last seen in a bid to reconnect has seen tens of thousands reported as missing, with the numbers still rising.

Internet outages across the country are making rescue efforts and reconnecting with missing family difficult.

Based on the strength of the quakes, the US Geological Survey calculated a 44% chance of more than 10,000 fatalities and 30% chance of more than 100,000.

Many buildings have collapsed, and dramatic footage from the city’s main airport shows ceilings falling onto travellers, closing the airport.

Search and rescue teams are racing against the clock to pull people from underneath rubble after the powerful earthquakes west of Caracas.

The death toll has reached at least 235 people, and over 50,000 have been reported missing.

This salon's CCTV captured the exact moment a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Venezuela pic.twitter.com/Sp0vLHd6aU

Hundreds of people in Venezuela were trapped under rubble and many more still unaccounted for on Thursday after two powerful earthquakes wreaked havoc in ​and around the capital Caracas, setting off powerful aftershocks and leaving thousands homeless.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas on Wednesday evening, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, the strongest ‌in more than a century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.