\u201cA seismic event that everything suggests was considerably above 7 points has taken place. There are several complicated areas \u2026 very alarming areas from the visual point of view, with buildings and homes that have collapsed,\u201d the interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, told the state broadcaster VTV.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally this kind of event is followed by aftershocks, which could also bring down some structures that were damaged by the main event,\u201d Cabello warned, urging citizens to remain outdoors and to stay calm.<\/p>\n
A Guardian reporter saw at least three buildings that had collapsed in Altamira, an upmarket area of Caracas that is home to many foreign embassies, after the quakes hit shortly after 6pm on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
A damaged building at Los Palos Grandes, in Caracas. Photograph: Jes\u00fas Vargas\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Some people were reportedly trapped under the rubble although the number of victims and the death toll was not immediately clear. Outside one of the buildings a person was seen weeping and crying out the name of his grandmother who he feared was inside. Nearby rescue workers and volunteers searched for survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was horrible,\u201d said Olky Barrero, a 56-year-old teacher, as she joined the search effort outside one of the collapsed buildings. \u201cWe hope to God that there are as few victims as possible. We\u2019re praying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I was, it felt like the walls were going to fall on top of us, they were shaking back and forth, this way and that,\u201d added Barrero as two victims, at least one of them still alive, were hauled out of the building\u2019s ruins.<\/p>\n
![\"Severe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Severe_earthquake_destroys_building_in_Caracas--cf962b5c-5993-4db4-9dbb-ebc25d1cbc45-3.0.0000000.jpg\")
Severe earthquake destroys building in Caracas<\/p>\n
Thick columns of dust could be seen rising from the city while images showed residents fleeing badly damaged buildings with their belongings and pets.<\/p>\n
One of the worst hit areas appeared to have been La Guaira, a port city just north of Caracas on Venezuela\u2019s Caribbean coast. La Guaira is home to Venezuela\u2019s main international airport, the Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar International Airport, and is also close to some of the hillside communities that came under attack by US forces, when Donald Trump ordered the 3 January attack on Venezuela this year to abduct its president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n One large beachfront hotel in La Guaira, Eduard\u2019s Hotel Boutique, appears to have suffered extensive damage with some videos showing parts of the building had been levelled by the quake. Nearby in Catia La Mar, Venezuela\u2019s naval academy and a number of tall residential buildings were also severely damaged.<\/p>\n The US embassy in Caracas urged its citizens to avoid damaged areas, not to enter damaged buildings and to seek secure shelter.<\/p>\n Emergency services work at the site of a collapsed building in Caracas. Photograph: Gaby Or\u00e1a\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many injured people inside. It\u2019s a disaster,\u201d one man could be heard saying in footage shot outside a building that had collapsed in San Bernardino, an area of northern Caracas.<\/p>\n In Baruta, a suburb of Caracas, civil defence workers used stretchers to carry victims from shattered buildings after a landslide triggered by the earthquake.<\/p>\n Baruta\u2019s mayor, Darwin Gonz\u00e1lez, posted social media footage of a woman being recused from the rubble. \u201cWe call on people to remain calm and civil at this time,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The exiled opposition leader and Nobel laureate, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, wrote on X: \u201cMy heart, my infinite embrace, and my prayers are with every Venezuelan home in these hours of anguish. May strength, serenity and solidarity prevail among us in the face of this difficult moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s capital, Caracas, has been struck by two powerful earthquakes that caused major damage at the international airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-656736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}