In good times, La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas, is known as a popular getaway spot with golden sand, popular beach bars and seafood restaurants.On Friday, it resembled a scene from a disaster film as rescue workers and anguished residents combed through debris with their hands or whatever tools they could locate to find loved ones trapped beneath the rubble.The area was one of the worst affected in Venezuela after devastating back-to-back earthquakes flattened areas in and around the capital.Eyewitness footage and the aftermath from an earthquake that hit Venezuela yesterday. Video: Reuters In La Guaira, at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments and a hotel, were demolished. Along much of the coast, entire buildings had crumbled. Some apartments had only walls remaining.Anguished residents, many of whom combed through debris with their hands or whatever tools they could find, criticised a lack of state ​help and proper equipment. Reseidencias El Palmar de Oeste, a large apartment complex with views of the sea, is one of the large buildings reduced to rubble.Volunteers search for survivors in Caraballeda, La Guaira state. Photograph: Getty Images On Friday, groups of residents and volunteers gathered there to try to rescue any survivors trapped inside. Using their hands and whatever tools were available, they lifted slabs of mortar and dug through crushed walls, wire and dust.“He’s under the slabs and there’s no machinery to get him out,” said Yamileth Jimenez of her ​19-year-old son, who was trapped beneath the debris of their seven-story apartment building.As one woman stood near a building that had been reduced to rubble, she said she had heard tapping noises. Her boyfriend was trapped inside, she believed. But no rescue workers, firefighters or medical workers were available.“They’ve pulled out a lot of dead people,” she said. “Injured people, children, animals.”Outside another building, a couple searched for their son. He was playing basketball when the quakes hit and had not been seen since.“My sister lived here!” cried one woman who stood by a damaged apartment building as workers scraped away rubble. “I see no one here.” Another resident said she was desperate to find a work colleague who lived in a sixth-floor apartment in La Guaira. She said she feared that no one would reach him in time.“We’re stuck like this until the international community arrives,” she said.Civilians and volunteers have been co-ordinating the rescue efforts for those injured or trapped. Some had travelled by car and motorcycle through the night from the city of Valencia, carrying food and supplies.Religious groups also gathered at the scene to pray. There was no presence of Venezuelan military or national and international rescue teams at this site in Caraballeda, La Guaira.A site where volunteers are searching for survivors, in Caraballeda, La Guaira state. Photograph: Getty Images The Venezuelan government has estimated that hundreds of people are still trapped and missing, on top of more than 900 confirmed fatalities ‌and thousands of injuries.A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had 50,000 listed as of Friday morning.After the initial shock, many residents are only now coming to terms with the scale of the devastation.The first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2, struck west of the capital, Caracas, on Wednesday just after 6pm local time. It was followed by another, much stronger one measuring 7.5 just 39 seconds later.The rare “doublet” earthquake was one of the most powerful tectonic events to strike Venezuela in the past century.As rescuers continued to comb through rubble on Friday in the hope of finding more survivors, there was only one certainty: the death toll will rise further as emergency crews begin to reach hard-hit areas and remote hillside towns. - Additional reporting: Reuters