Nearly 40 aftershocks and widespread communications outages have compounded the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela following twin earthquakes.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake and a 7.5-magnitude were less than a minute apart, said the U.S. Geological Survey. The second earthquake was the largest to hit the country since 1900.

Two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, about 39 seconds apart, struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, collapsing buildings in the capital, Caracas, and…

US Geological Survey estimates 44 per cent chance fatalities could exceed 10,000