The death toll from twin earthquakes has risen to 920 in Venezuela, where 50,000 were reported missing as a desperate and slow-moving search for survivors was boosted by international rescue teams.

The Chinese embassy in Caracas said the death toll of Chinese nationals is now seven.

Caracas residents jeered interim leader Delcy Rodriguez during her visit to a devastated neighbourhood on Friday as fury over the perceived lack of an official response mounted.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said more than 50,000 people were missing after two powerful earthquakes struck within a minute of each other on Wednesday evening, flattening buildings in the north of the country.

The coastal area of La Guaira, near the capital Caracas, was the worst hit, with one building after another crumpled by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes.

Access to the disaster zone would be restricted from 8pm local time on Friday, or 8am on Saturday, Hong Kong time, Interior Minister Diasdado Cabello announced in a televised address.

A rescue team from Chile arrived at one residential complex in La Guaira, made up of four tall buildings housing hundreds of apartments that had largely been reduced to rubble.

"Unfortunately, the collapse is total, and there is little chance of finding survivors. Efforts are now focused on recovering the bodies of the deceased," rescue team leader Nadiomar Polanco said at the site, which resembles many others in the city.

In an upscale Caracas neighbourhood, Rodriguez was greeted with angry chants from a crowd of people whose loved ones were trapped under the debris.

"The government isn't doing anything for the people," they yelled from behind cordons next to a pulverised building.

Workers could be seen using sledgehammers to break through detritus, calling for "absolute silence" to detect cries from survivors.

"It's a very, very complex emergency response," the UN's Fletcher said, warning the death toll could rise significantly.

Aftershocks and destroyed buildings still posed significant dangers.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilised to help find survivors, with Spanish, Salvadoran, Swiss, Colombian and Mexican rescue teams already on the ground.

The United States said on Friday it was sending a disaster response team of more than 250 personnel, including three special search-and-rescue units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble, after a senior US military official landed in Caracas to oversee relief efforts.

"Even before the earthquakes, millions of people across Venezuela were facing food insecurity, collapsing health services, protection risks, and limited access to basic services," the UN and other aid agencies said in a statement on Friday. "The international community must not allow this emergency to deepen into a larger human tragedy."

Those killed also included nine Portuguese nationals, five Spaniards, two Brazilians and one Italian-Venezuelan.

Fifty-six Portuguese citizens and 133 Spaniards were missing or otherwise unaccounted for, according to their respective governments. (AFP & Xinhua)




Edited by Robert Kemp