Mothers search, men weep amid debris of Venezuela earthquakes

People walk past a collapsed building following an earthquake in Caracas on June 25, 2026. Photo by MANAURE QUINTERO /AFP via Getty Images

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“Antonio, it’s your mom, I’m right here,” a mother’s desperate cries bounced off the rubble of a 22-story building in Caracas that collapsed following two powerful earthquakes in Venezuela on Wednesday.

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Neighbors looked on helplessly at the home’s remains as one of them clambered around the debris, listening out for responses but hearing only silence.

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“We need flashlights,” said one of the improvised volunteers, with just one police officer accompanying the group as they waited for rescue workers to arrive.

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“Tania, Tania,” another name echoed around the devastated site, which was part of the Petunia residential complex in the well-to-do Los Palos Grandes neighborhood that normally bustles with restaurants and cafes.

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One man wept quietly in the street.

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At around 6pm local time (2200GMT), two earthquakes struck the same part of Venezuela in quick succession.

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A woman sleeps next to her dog in a square following an earthquake in Caracas on June 25, 2026. Photo by MANAURE QUINTERO /AFP via Getty Images

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The tremors of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), caused buildings to crumble across the capital, scattering their inhabitants out into the streets.

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Twenty aftershocks followed, according to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, while Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said the states of Trujillo, Carabobo, Miranda and La Guaira were the hardest hit.

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It remains unknown if there were any fatalities, and although Cabello reported injuries, he did not specify a number.

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The strongest tremors in earthquake-prone Venezuela’s recent history occurred in the northeast in 1997, killing 73 people, and in Caracas in 1967, when 236 people died.

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