Venezuela has been struck by powerful back-to-back earthquakes, levelling buildings in the capital, Caracas, and prompting fears of mass casualties.
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck near San Felipe, about 284km (176 miles) west of Caracas, at 22:04 GMT on Wednesday, followed almost immediately by a magnitude 7.5 quake near Yumare, about 293km (182 miles) west of the capital, according to the US Geological Survey, reports Al Jazeera.
In an address to the nation late on Wednesday, Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency as authorities continued to assess the extent of the damage.
Rodriguez did not provide any information on injuries or fatalities.
The US Geological Survey estimated that casualties could range from 10,000 to 100,000 people.
Emergency services have been activated to help with search and rescue efforts, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
“We have buildings, homes and houses which have collapsed, and we are taking care of things with everything we have available in terms of security, civil assistance,” Cabello said on state television.
“The fire department, police, and all have been activated.”
Cabello said the Altamira neighbourhood in Caracas was facing an “alarming situation”, with several buildings reported to have collapsed.
He urged motorists to clear the roads to allow emergency services to carry out rescue operations and treat the injured.
Many Venezuelans were at home when the earthquakes struck because Wednesday was a public holiday marking a decisive 1821 battle in Venezuela’s war of independence from Spain.
Witnesses described the shock of experiencing two earthquakes less than a minute apart.
“It was unbelievable, I don’t even know how long it lasted,” said Heidi Romero, who was on the top floor of a shopping centre when the quakes struck.
“We went out through the emergency stairs; that’s how they got us out,” the 42-year-old shopkeeper told the AFP news agency.
Carmen Guedez, 69, was in the same room as her bedridden sister when she felt a jolt.
“It kept getting stronger,” Guedez, an administrator who lives in a hilly, middle-class neighbourhood above the capital, told the AFP.
“I started to see the windows begin to move and then everything shook.”
“The stairs came away, the whole wall cracked,” Odalis Escalona, a 54-year-old bank employee in Caracas, told the AFP.
“Things fell from the ceiling. It was horrible.”
Simon Bolivar International Airport, the main gateway to Caracas, was shuttered after sustaining severe damage.
Footage posted on social media by Wilmer Azuaje, an elected representative for Barinas State, showed falling debris and people running for cover at the airport.
Vashan Wright, a geophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, told Al Jazeera that the damage was so extensive because Venezuela lies in a “massive strike-slip fault zone” straddling the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate.
The capital city of Caracas is also in a deep sedimentary basin, which further amplifies the seismic waves from earthquakes, Wright said.