The chances of finding survivors after the earthquake in Venezuela are decreasing by the minute. On Monday, the number of confirmed deaths rose to more than 1,719, according to authorities, AP reports.
Tens of thousands are missing and the actual death toll is feared to rise further.
Meanwhile, the already hard-hit coastal region was shaken by a strong aftershock on Monday. The magnitude 4.6 quake caused people to once again leave their homes in panic, reports the Spanish news agency EFE. The aftershock just east of La Guaira complicates the already very difficult rescue work.
Outside Caracas' Miguel Perez Carreño Hospital, the walls are covered with pictures of missing people, the BBC's reporter on site says. People are pressing forward in the hope of finding the names of relatives on a list showing which patients the hospital has received.
Boys saved
The critical window for finding survivors closed late Sunday. But there is still hope. On Monday, a 21-year-old man in La Guaira was rescued by Salvadoran rescue workers, among others, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on X.
“Thank God for allowing this miracle,” he writes.
On Sunday, two eleven-year-old boys were rescued from two different collapsed houses. One of them was under three metres of rubble, near his dead mother and sister.
American and French rescue teams also managed to pull a man and his teenage son alive from the rubble in La Guaira. In total, about 30 people were dug out alive over the weekend, according to the country's president.
Saved from looters
The Venezuelan government has been criticized for its disaster response, not least for its lack of heavy machinery. Reports of Venezuelans digging through rubble with their bare hands are numerous.
"I got my daughter out halfway. But they don't give us any equipment," Wilker Molaya in La Guaira told Reuters.
Ali Rodríguez, who was buried under rubble in a supermarket, is also critical of the government's response. He and his wife were rescued by looters after eight long hours, the 50-year-old tells the BBC. In the meantime, an eight-year-old boy who was lying next to him in the rubble died.
Now Rodríguez is looking for his own son.
I think he's alive, but I'm afraid he thinks we're dead. I'm sure he's looking for me.
