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Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Thursday that at least 164 people were killed and 971 were injured after two major, back-to-back earthquakes struck northern Venezuela, reducing many buildings to rubble in the nearby capital of Caracas.

The death toll rose from 32 killed and 700 injured that Venezuelan authorities provided in the early hours of Thursday.

An initial earthquake at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, was followed less than a minute later by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in the same area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Rodríguez said the initial toll was expected to increase as rescuers and emergency workers searched through the rubble. Dozens of buildings collapsed in the city of La Guaira, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) north of Caracas, she added.

Rodríguez called for national unity to save lives. "Together we will overcome this tragedy," she wrote on social media.

The epicenters, which USGS estimated to be about 3 miles apart, were near the town of Morón on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, some 100 miles west of Caracas.

In the wake of the destruction, President Trump said he had instructed his administration to help Venezuela, saying that the earthquakes were "both massive in scale and have left a devastating number of deaths."

"We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good!!!" Trump 

The U.S. State Department said it mobilized a disaster assistance team and would be sending search and rescue teams, medical and humanitarian supplies and other resources to Venezuela.

Humanitarian aid, search and rescue missions and medical personnel were also offered by Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile and El Salvador as messages of support to Venezuelans poured in.

Rodriguez announced a $200 million reconstruction fund for hospitals and homes damaged by the earthquakes, as reported by the Associated Press.

"When the earthquakes are this close together" in time, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at USGS, "it can be difficult to unravel the exact magnitudes and the exact locations, especially for the second event," due to the way the signals on seismograms overlap in these cases.

Photos and video posted to social media showed leveled buildings, people running for safety, and falling debris from structural damage at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas. The airport has since closed.

The total number of deaths and injuries is not yet clear. On Wednesday evening, USGS modeling of the 7.5-magnitude earthquake estimated deaths could be in the thousands to tens of thousands, with economic losses reaching billions to tens of billions of dollars, Earle said.

"This doesn't happen very often," Earle said. "When they're right together it's hard to understand what would happen."

The strongest of the "doublet," as the USGS described the twin quakes, is the largest earthquake to strike Venezuela since 1900, when a 7.7-magnitude quake hit the country, according to USGS.

About a half-hour after the Venezuela quakes, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the east coast of Japan. Earlier Wednesday, a 5.6-magnitude quake struck Northern California. There was no major damage reported in either quake.

In Venezuela, significant aftershocks are likely to follow in the coming days.

According to USGS forecasting, there's a 40 percent chance that, in the next week, a 6-magnitude or larger earthquake will strike in the same region, Earle said, and an "almost certainty" of an earthquake measuring at least a magnitude 5.

Tsunami warnings previously issued for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were recalled, and no such advisory was in effect as of Wednesday night.

On Wednesday evening, Venezuela's acting President Rodríguez declared a state of emergency, and said several Venezuelan states had sustained damage. She also called for unity, and urged "our population to remain calm."

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Emma Bowman

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Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Thursday that at least 164 people were killed and 971 were injured after two major, back-to-back earthquakes struck northern Venezuela.

Death toll climbs to 164 killed, 971 injured in major earthquakes in Venezuela

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