Powerful twin earthquakes hammer Venezuela, killing at least 164

In Caracas, people evacuated swaying buildings and remained outside, many visibly shocked as they saw entire walls that had collapsed, making furniture visible from the street. Dust columns could also be seen in two neighborhoods of the capital, where restaurants and other businesses are typically busy.

“The scene was like a horror movie,” a woman in the city told the Reuters news agency after she managed to open a door and leave her building. “We had to climb over the rubble and everything.”

A video posted online and verified by NBC News showed dust billowing across part of the Caracas skyline.

“We understand that some people may be desperate, but we are acting according to protocols to activate aid and rescue efforts to help those who need it most,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on state television. “Be very careful with children and the elderly; call each other and check that no one has been harmed.”

He also urged people to remain outside as aftershocks could further damage some structures.

“The building really shook from side to side. Unreal. The force was incredibly strong,” Caracas resident Roberto Damas said. “We were walking and it was tossing us around. Everything in the apartment fell. Well, thank God we were able to get out.”

The aid organization World Vision has people in Venezuela and said it was activating its emergency response.

With Wednesday a holiday in Venezuela, Luis Colmenarez, regional emergency content and communications specialist for the organization, said he was around four hours away from Caracas and watching the “Toy Story” movie with his sisters when the earthquakes struck.

“Halfway through the film, everything went dark and everything started to shake,” Colmenarez said in a statement, distributed by World Vision.

“The shaking lasted between two and three minutes — it felt endless,” he added. Colmenarez said there were many collapsed buildings and that people were in the street and afraid to return to buildings due to aftershocks.

Venezuela has already faced economic challenges and poverty, and the United Nations humanitarian affairs agency says almost 8 million of the country’s 28 million people were in need of assistance as of May.

Trump ordered a military raid into Venezuela in January to arrest its president, Nicolás Maduro, who is charged in the U.S. related to narcotics trafficking.