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The death toll in the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela earlier this week has risen to 1,430, according to one of the country’s top politicians Jorge Rodríguez.
Another 3,200 people were injured and 3,100 left homeless by the disaster, the National Assembly president added, speaking on state television.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors after the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck within a minute of each other on Wednesday evening, flattening buildings in the north of the country. At least 68,900 people have been reported unaccounted for by their families.
Many civilians in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit areas, have been using shovels and their bare hands to dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings.
On Saturday, the UN estimated that the quakes caused $6.7bn in damage, equivalent to 6% of Venezuela’s GDP.
The preliminary assessment accounts for losses to assets including housing but does not cover wider economic disruption, the UN Development Programme said in a statement.
The South American country’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said on state television that more than 14,000 members of the military and police were patrolling affected areas, where access has been blocked and special permits are required to enter.
Further rescue teams sent by governments from across the world, including Mexico, the US, Brazil, El Salvador and France, arrived in Venezuela on Saturday.
It comes after teams from countries including the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK were deployed to aid the search and rescue effort.
But a specialist team of British crisis-response volunteers, from the charity Serve On, that was heading to Caracas was stuck in Madrid airport for more than 24 hours after their flight was cancelled. The disruption came after Simón Bolívar International airport, the only international airport that serves Venezuela’s capital, was badly damaged by the earthquakes.
Their team leader, Vernon Young, told the Press Association: “These things are always time critical. We’re a light team and can move quickly. The sooner you get there, the more chance you have of saving lives.”
He added: “We’re a technical rescue team and can potentially find deeply entombed victims just by their movement. We still believe we will make a decent contribution if we get there in the next day or two.”
Because there are no direct flights from the UK to Venezuela, the team has been at Madrid airport since 9pm on Friday after connecting flights from Istanbul were cancelled.
Flights from Madrid have also been cancelled, leaving the volunteers stranded due to their reliance on civilian transport.
Jeremy Lewin, a US state department official, said the US military would help coordinate flights to bring in rescue workers, mobile hospitals and supplies.
He said two 80-person search teams had been deployed and a US navy transport ship was docked off the coast of Venezuela, ready to receive airlifted survivors in need of medical attention.
Lewin said it was a “race against the clock” to find people injured in the quakes.
He added: “People are trapped under rubble, and the priority is to get the search and rescue teams and the medical professionals and others to them as quickly as possible to save lives.”
Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross’s regional director for the Americas, said: “People are still terrified to re-enter what were their homes.”
Foreign nationals have been confirmed among the dead, reportedly including 15 of Portuguese nationality or descent, seven Chinese, two Brazilians, five Spaniards and an Italian-Venezuelan.
