At least 188 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening — a magnitude 7.2 tremor followed just 40 seconds later by a 7.5 quake, the most powerful to hit the country in more than a century.
More than 200 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble of some 250 collapsed or damaged buildings, and the death toll is expected to rise significantly.
Schools across the affected areas have been closed and turned into emergency shelters, while hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured.
Freelance reporter Catherine Ellis has been talking to people in Caracas from the Colombian border with Venezuela.
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Catherine Ellis, on the Colombian border, says Venezuelans had been feeling cautiously optimistic about their country's future before the disaster struck.
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OUT: “...dark, black cloud.”
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Catherine Ellis, on the Colombian border, says the financial burden of rebuilding will compound the hardship already facing ordinary Venezuelans.
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OUT: “...all of them.”
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