Caracas – Venezuela announced Saturday that the death toll from the two devastating earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 has surpassed 4,000. Venezuelan parliamentary speaker Jorge Rodríguez said at least 4,118 people were killed and 16,740 others were injured in the consecutive quakes, which leveled entire neighborhoods in the coastal state of La Guaira.
The earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, struck within seconds of each other. The tremors caused thousands of residential buildings and public facilities to collapse and inflicted widespread damage on infrastructure.