The death toll from the earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to at least 1943, with more than 10,500 people injured and around 10,000 still missing in the badly affected La Guaira region.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez outlined the grim scenario on Tuesday.

In just two towns in La Guaira – Catia La Mar and Caraballeda – around 30,000 people were estimated by authorities to have been present when the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck on Wednesday evening.

Of those, around 13,500 had been able to reach safety on their own, and around 6400 more had been rescued by emergency services in the days that followed, Rodríguez said.

He gave no information on the remaining 10,000 missing.

Nearly a week after the earthquakes, hope of finding survivors is fading. Around 855 buildings were completely destroyed or severely damaged.

Rescue teams ‌from Ecuador and the United States halted operations early on Tuesday in Macuto, a town in La ‌Guaira state – the area hardest hit – after more than 40 hours of work, when they stopped receiving responses from a mother and her three children trapped beneath a nine-storey building.

“In the end, we believe the days have already passed and that what we will ‌find now ‌is death,” said ⁠Major Jorge Montanero, leader of the EQ11 team from Guayaquil, ​located on Ecuador’s Pacific coast.

“Unfortunately, things haven’t developed favourably,” he said as he stood amid rubble after cutting through four concrete slabs of the building in an effort to locate the four trapped victims.

Salvadoran rescue workers reached a 44-year-old man trapped under the rubble of a shopping centre in the coastal city of Maiquetía in the early hours of Tuesday, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele wrote on the platform X.

The man had been supplied with water through a tube while rescuers found a way to reach him safely.

Workers from the fire brigade in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, which was also deployed in the disaster area, reported on Monday that they had rescued a 12-year-old boy.

“Five days after the earthquake, signs of life are the greatest motivation to keep going,” read a post on the platform X.

“As long as there is still a chance, we will keep searching.”

“There is no doubt we are facing a figure higher than what has already been reported. I can offer an ​estimate: ​we are procuring – and this has ​been agreed with local authorities – 10,000 body bags,” Gianluca ‌Rampolla, the United Nations’ resident co-ordinator in Venezuela, said from his office in Caracas.

The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez says at least 1943 people have died and thousands have been injured as a result of the earthquakes.

A dog was also among those rescued, according to Bukele. The animal, named Giselle, was pulled from the rubble in the city of Caraballeda after a five-hour operation.

A video showed the dog lying in the arms of its rescuer and excitedly licking his face. The rescue reports could not initially be independently verified.

Emergency workers from Venezuela and numerous other countries continue to search for people trapped beneath collapsed buildings. According to a modelling estimate by the US Geological Survey, the death toll could run into the tens of thousands.

Venezuela was already in a difficult situation before the earthquakes. The country has for years been suffering from political tensions, economic problems and one of the world’s largest migration crises.

with Reuters