UN deputy secretary general reports more than 50 thousand missing in Venezuela
More than 50 thousand people are considered missing in Venezuela after a powerful earthquake.
UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher reported this. According to him, the rescue operation remains extremely difficult: debris removal continues, and the number of victims, according to preliminary data, exceeds 500 people.
Correspondents from Agence France-Presse (AFP) working in the disaster zone report massive destruction — collapsed buildings and piles of debris are visible everywhere. Local residents continue to search for their loved ones who may remain under the rubble.
The earthquake occurred on the evening of June 24. With an interval of about 40 seconds, two powerful tremors with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 were recorded in the country. Their epicenters were located 10 kilometers apart in the state of Yaracuy. After the main shock, 214 aftershocks were registered.
According to the latest data, the number of deaths has reached 589 people, and about 3 thousand have been injured.
