Venezuela declares state of emergency after powerful twin quakes
CARACAS
Rescuers search for victims in a collapsed building following an earthquake in Caracas on June 24, 2026.(AFP)
Venezuela's interim leader declared a state of emergency on June 24 as two massive earthquakes caused buildings in the capital to crumble and forced the closure of the country's main airport, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to offer aid.
Delcy Rodriguez said 20 aftershocks had followed the earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, which struck the same area of Venezuela, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The quakes triggered panic in the capital and drove people into the streets.
It remained unknown if there were fatalities, but some people were injured and buildings had collapsed, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
Trump said late Wednesday that "the two major earthquakes that just hit the great people of Venezuela are both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths."
"The U.S.A. stands ready, willing, and able to help! I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly," the American president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good!!!"
An AFP journalist saw a 22-story building completely destroyed in the capital's Altamira neighborhood, where people cried out relatives' names as volunteers climbed over the rubble.
"We need flashlights," one of them said.
The first quake, with an epicenter 21 kilometers (13 miles) west of the coastal town of Moron, occurred at 2204 GMT, USGS said. Within a minute, a 7.5-magnitude quake struck about 45 kilometers away.
"This earthquake was the second event in a doublet. This magnitude 7.5 mainshock was preceded by 39 seconds by a 7.2 foreshock," USGS said.
Cabello asked people to leave their homes, adding that gas supplies had been cut to several buildings as a precaution.
"We have some damaged structures and we don't want any kind of accident involving gas to occur," he said.
The Maiquetia International Airport, located near Caracas, was closed due to "serious damage" to its infrastructure, Rodriguez said, with social media posts showing its severely damaged facilities.
The tremors struck at a depth of 22 kilometers and 10 kilometers, respectively.
The quake was felt as far away as the Colombian capital of Bogota, where alarms sounded and some residents evacuated buildings as a precaution.
Freddy Tovar, coordinator of Colombia's National Seismological Network, said they had received more than 200 reports of tremors nationwide.
"The conditions of this seismic event mean that some aftershocks may occur, which could also be widely felt across Colombian territory," he said in a video posted on X.
The Colombian disaster management agency UNGRD ruled out the possibility of a tsunami taking place in the aftermath.
"NO tsunami, NO danger from a recent earthquake," the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center said in an X post.
The strongest tremors in earthquake-prone Venezuela's recent history occurred in the northeast in 1997, killing 73 people, and in Caracas in 1967, when 236 people died.
Shortly after the twin quakes on Wednesday, a 7.2-magnitude tremor hit northern Japan, the country's weather agency said, with no casualties or material damage reported.