The death toll from the powerful pair of earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week has risen to 1,719, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Monday.
This is more than 250 above the 1,450 previously reported. Rodriguez, who is the brother of Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez, said more than 5,000 people have been injured.
He said 189 of a total of around 800 damaged buildings completely collapsed after the strong earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 on Wednesday evening.
Since the quakes, there have been more than 600 aftershocks, including one of magnitude 4.2 on Monday that triggered an alarm, Rodriguez said. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors earthquakes, put the strength of the tremor off the country's coast at 4.6.
Emergency teams from Venezuela and numerous other countries are searching under collapsed buildings for what could be tens of thousands of people who may have died, according to a model calculation by the USGS.
