Venezuela quake death toll nears 3,000

The death toll from twin earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to at least 2,954 with more than 16,500 people injured, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said on Saturday.

Since the twin earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck on June 24, authorities have recorded 942 aftershocks.

Some 190 buildings collapsed in the initial quakes and another 850 were damaged. More than 16,000 people lost their homes in the tremors.

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Despite the slim odds of finding more victims alive, emergency services continue to search for survivors. Thousands of people are still missing.

Rescue workers pulled a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed shopping centre on Thursday. The rescue is considered extraordinary, as disaster experts regard the first 72 hours after a major earthquake as the critical window for finding survivors. Beyond that period, experience shows that the chances of survival for people trapped beneath rubble decline sharply.