Videos show people trapped under debris, including children, pulled to safety after twin earthquakes hit Venezuela

Emergency workers have been desperately racing to rescue people trapped under collapsed buildings after a pair of powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela Wednesday night, leaving at least 164 people dead and nearly 1,000 injured. Three children were among those pulled to safety in a miraculous rescue that aired on state television. Footage showed the young children climbing over piles of rubble in La Guaira. In another video, an emergency worker heaves a large stone aside while working to free people from the wreckage. The Central University of Venezuela in Caracas shared a video on X of several people working to lift debris off a trapped man. The university identified them as medical students who “joined in to provide aid and assistance to various survivors.” The students helped free a man in the town of Caraballeda who was pinned under the beams of a collapsed restaurant. One Caracas resident, Nelson Ospedales, said his home in the Altamira neighborhood partially collapsed. “Material possessions can be recovered, but at this moment, the competent authorities — such as firefighters and civil defense — have been completely overwhelmed,” he told Noticias Telemundo Ahora in Spanish. “They need more personnel. Hospitals have become severely congested.” Neighboring countries have already offered assistance, including the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Cuba, and El Salvador. “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,” President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good!!!” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he talked to Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, and U.S. search-and-rescue teams are being deployed from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles. He said the country’s most urgent need is search and rescue. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said on X that his country is ready to send 300 rescue personnel and 50 tons of equipment, medicine, and essential supplies to Caracas. Rodríguez thanked Trump and his administration, which she said had been in “permanent contact” with the Venezuelan government, and expressed gratitude to world leaders who have sent messages of support and offered aid. The first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck near the town of San Felipe, about 100 miles west of Caracas, shortly after 6 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. The second, more powerful quake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck 39 seconds later near the town of Yumare. The USGS said “high casualties and damage are probable,” and the disaster will most likely be widespread. Photos showed collapsed buildings and debris scattered across streets. Aftershocks, some potentially with strong shaking, were possible, the USGS said. The agency warned that strong aftershocks remain possible. Rodríguez said 20 aftershocks have already been recorded, declared a state of emergency, and announced that Caracas’s airport sustained heavy damage and would be closed. The twin earthquakes rank among the most powerful to strike Venezuela in more than a century.