On-site footage Wednesday and Thursday showed survivors and emergency services searching for trapped people, and survivors being taken away on stretchers. In others, residents decried a lack of help.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas, followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Thousands feared dead as two powerful earthquakes devastate Venezuela, trapping residents and causing widespread destruction in Caracas.