British rescue team joins Venezuela earthquake search effort as death toll nears 1,000
Wednesday’s 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes were among the strongest to hit Venezuela for more than a century
A British search and rescue team has been deployed to Venezuela, where the death toll from Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes has reached almost 1,000.
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The 68-strong team, made up of personnel from fire brigades across the country, left RAF Brize Norton on Friday along with six specialist search dogs and humanitarian staff.
Wednesday’s 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes were among the strongest to hit Venezuela for more than a century and could be felt throughout the region.
Local authorities have reported 920 people died and 3,360 were injured in the earthquakes, with the toll expected to continue rising.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “My thoughts are with the people of Venezuela following this week’s devastating earthquakes.
“The UK stands in solidarity with all those affected, particularly those who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods.”
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The search and rescue team has been provided by UK International Search and Rescue (UKISAR), which responds to disasters on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
As well as the UKISAR team, Britain has despatched members of the UK Emergency Medical Team to prepare for a further medical deployment.
The Government has also made £2 million of humanitarian funding available to help respond to the disaster.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office confirmed that UK staff were all safe and accounted for after the British embassy in Caracas was damaged in the earthquakes.
The embassy – which is on the 11th floor of an office tower in the north east of the city – has been closed, but alternative arrangements have been put in place to assist British nationals in the country.
The number of British citizens in Venezuela is understood to be in the low hundreds and there have been no reports of Britons killed or injured, it is understood.
Foreign rescue teams - including some from countries which have previously opposed Venezuela - began arriving late on Thursday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas.
Mexico, with its own experience in earthquake recovery, sent 250 military rescue personnel, plus five rescue dogs and other equipment.
Meanwhile, over 60 Colombians arrived on Friday, as did over 180 rescue workers of a promised 300-person-strong Salvadoran team and nearly 100 from Spain.
The United States said it was mobilizing $150 million in aid and easing sanctions to facilitate earthquake relief.
The U.S. military dispatched two ships and said helicopters and aircraft would support search-and-rescue operations.
The U.S. Geological Survey has predicted high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the last century.
La Guaira was the worst affected, as at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments, crumbled to the ground.
Jennifer Palacios, 25, said the quakes struck when she briefly left her homein the city's eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex, named after Venezuela's late socialist leader, burying her 6-year-old son and five other relatives.
"It's the community that has managed to get people out alive," she said, sitting on a plastic chair in front of the rubble.
"We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped."