Venezuela Earthquakes Kill 920 People as International Rescue Teams Arrive

A BBC reporter in Caraballeda, in La Guaira state, has seen heavy machinery arrive to begin the task of removing rubble.

International rescue workers already on the ground have seen “horrific damage”, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

Venezuela was ill-prepared and vulnerable in an emergency situation because of its already “crumbling infrastructure” following decades of underinvestment, Jan Egeland told the BBC.

Venezuela has experienced more than a decade of intense economic crisis, which has led to deteriorated living standards in the oil-rich country.

Earlier, the UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the disaster “needs an international global response and we’ll co-ordinate that and we will deliver”.

“I want people to know in Venezuela that help is coming,” he said.

One case that boosted morale across Venezuela is the rescue in La Guaira of three young siblings, who emerged from the rubble covered in dust and debris, footage broadcast on state television showed.

“Come here, my child, come here,” a man says to the first child as he emerges alive from a gap between chunks of concrete.

A girl then comes out, as the man asks her: “Are you siblings?”, to which she replies: “Yes, there are three of us.”

Shortly afterwards, with a little more difficulty, the third sister emerges, sobbing and covered in dust from head to toe.

Tributes are being paid to those who died. The wife of Venezuelan footballer Héctor Bello was killed while saving their daughter, according to his social media and local news.

Bello wrote on Instagram that “his precious love”, named by Venezuelan news outlets as his wife Andrea, saved the life of their toddler during the quakes.

“I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her, my love – how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who never abandoned her, even as you took your last breaths,” Bello wrote in one post.