‘Paralysed by fear’: Venezuelans tell of escape and loss after huge earthquakes

The seaside town of Catia La Mar, which was stuck by US missiles in January, was badly affected. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

As a double whammy of powerful earthquakes rattled Venezuela’s northern coast on Wednesday, residents of the capital, Caracas, scrambled out on to the streets from shuddering, fractured buildings.

“It was horrible. I felt like the house was moving to a different rhythm to the earth. I had to carry my mum out. She was paralysed by fear,” said 18-year-old Sebastian Rodríguez, whose family runs a shop in Centro Plaza, a brutalist commercial centre in the affluent neighbourhood of Los Palos Grandes.