Two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela on Wednesday, causing buildings to collapse in the capital of Caracas and rattling other cities, as videos posted online showed people running for safety.
A 7.2-magnitude quake hit at 5:04 p.m., quickly followed by a 7.5-magnitude temblor. The epicenter for both was near the town of Yamure, about 200 miles west of Caracas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quakes were felt as far away as northern Brazil, where buildings were evacuated in the Amazonian cities of Manaus and Belém.
In a televised address late Wednesday, Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency, saying that schools would be closed. The Simón Bolívar International Airport, located just outside of Caracas, is also closed because of damage, Rodriguez said.
“We’re asking our population to be calm,” said Rodriguez, who expressed solidarity with people who lost loved ones.
President Trump, who has backed Rodriguez since her rise to power in January after the U.S. military ousted leftist strongman Nicolás Maduro, said the U.S. was ready to send help.
“I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly. We will be there for our new and great friends,” Trump wrote on social media. “Early reports are not good.”
Some Latin American countries, including Brazil, Chile and Ecuador, have also pledged to provide humanitarian assistance.
In Venezuela, photos and videos disseminated by state broadcaster Telesur showed residents huddling outside buildings after evacuating and streets littered with rubble fallen from crumbling edifices. It was unclear whether anyone had died, but people posted photographs of collapsed buildings.
“I was asleep, and it was terrible as the bed began to move,” said Francelin Machuca, 53 years old. “But I was afraid to start running, so I stayed under the door frame.”
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said some of the heaviest damage was reported in residential and commercial districts of east Caracas, the same seismically active areas that were devastated in an earthquake in 1967.
Officials were gathering information from around the country, Cabello said on state television. He urged citizens to leave their homes, and said authorities had temporarily cut natural-gas service in the capital as a precaution.
“There are several problematic areas here,” Cabello said. “We have some very alarming situations.”
On social media, Venezuelans said they were shaken by the disaster. Barbara De Jesus said on X that she had managed to evacuate her apartment with her husband and cat. “I saw the walls of my building crumbling down,” she wrote.
Jose Cordero, 39, from Puerto La Cruz, east of Caracas on the Caribbean, said he felt the quakes for more than a minute. “I felt like I was at sea and the waves were shaking me,” he said.
Wilmer Azuaje posted a video of himself at the airport as parts of the terminal’s roof crumbled. “It’s shaking,” Azuaje said as dust and debris fell on people. Walls had large cracks, and the airport’s check-in areas and baggage conveyor belt were covered with bricks.
“Look at this! Everything is totally destroyed,” Azuaje said .
Venezuela has been grappling with years of economic devastation that drove nearly nine million people to flee abroad as poverty skyrocketed and the oil industry collapsed.
The aftermath of the quakes will be a challenge for Rodriguez.
While Rodriguez has preserved her predecessor’s authoritarian system, she has also become a close partner of the Trump administration.
María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who escaped from the country last year, wrote on X that her “prayers are with every Venezuelan home in these hours of anguish.”
“May strength, serenity, and solidarity prevail among us in the face of this difficult moment,” she said .
Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com
