On the ground in Venezuela after deadly earthquakes | BBC News

On Wednesday night, Venezuela suffered its worst earthquake since the year 1900. At least 920 people are known to have died, but some estimates fear the final death toll could be closer to 10,000.

Two back-to-back quakes hit the country less than one minute apart. >> So, what happens now? What will it mean for the country's future? And why is Venezuela particularly vulnerable to such an event?

Our correspondent will grant reports from Venezuela. >> The search and rescue effort has basically begun from the moment these earthquakes struck. From the very start, teams were out trying to pull people from the rubble.

And unfortunately, it is turned into a task of also uh pulling bodies from the uh collapsed buildings. In the main part, that work is concentrated in these neighborhoods of Alamira and Los Palos Grandes here in Karakas. But the main scene is down on the coast, a

place called Lagua, where as many as 100 buildings have collapsed. Um people have been working through the night every single night trying to find missing loved ones. It is a very very harrowing task and we do

not know at this stage how many of those expected 50,000 missing people will become part of the final death toll and we don't know indeed when we'll get a final figure for the number of dead. I used to live here in Kadakus on this very

corner in fact and my colleague Vanessa Silva still does. She's Venezuelan and was in her home when the earthquake struck. >> We as a journalist are struggling with difficult moments in this country.

Even our team was hit. I mean my our cameraman Ronnie Samura uh doing this video just starts crying because he lost a friend in the in the Vargas state when you have a moment to sit and realize what is going on is when

you all your emotions um came it's not been easy it's not been easy for us as a journalist it's not been easy for us as a Venezuelan society because we have struggling with a country that faces many complication alongs this year And especially now when we saw that

the economy will improve now that people went wanting to come back the relative wanted to come to visit the invest again in the country. Now this earthquake occur and now people is again losing losing friends losing families losing opportunities of recuperation.

Crews have been coming in from around the world, particularly those places that have great expertise in search and rescue. That includes Mexico, of course, who have famed the world over for it. The Brazilians were on the plane when we flew in

earlier today. There have been teams sent from the UK, from the United States. There have been medical teams sent from Cuba and aid from a whole range of nations and partners, including Spain.

The United States has promised relief effort of $150 million. And that's just to begin with. With the Trump administration promising more prolonged and sustained support to the government of Venezuela, which it now considers an ally, the wider impact of this moment could go on

for years. There are many, many homes in this nation that are going to be completely uninhabitable uh and will need to be pulled down. That's just to talk about the accommodation side of things

which is huge. The of course the loss of life is the first thing. The collective pain on uh Venezuelans of losing so many people.

Again, we don't know how many people that will be yet, but it looks like it will be a very high number. That's so many potentially thousands of families who've lost a loved one or more.