Venezuela’s Capital Rattled by 4.5 Earthquake

Venezuelan authorities said Thursday they were continuing to assess the impact of a series of tremors that rattled the capital, Caracas the previous day.

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Puebla, Mexico, September 1, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan authorities said Thursday they were continuing to assess the impact of a series of tremors that rattled the capital, Caracas the previous day.

Residents of Caracas were shaken by a handful of small earthquakes, causing some evacuations from office blocks and government buildings, though no deaths or injuries were reported.

“We witnessed the evacuation of some buildings in Sebucan, Los Chorros and Santa Eduviges in Sucre municipality, and reports of preventive evacuations of some companies in the Chacao municipality, such as Digitel [and] Torre HP, among others,” Interior Minister Nestor Reverol told state broadcaster VTV.

The strongest tremor had a magnitude of 4.5, according to the Venezuelan Foundation of Seismological Research. The epicentre was around 9km north of Caracas in Vargas state, and was followed by at least four aftershocks.

“We will continue to monitor [the situation] accordingly,” Reverol said.

Venezuela rarely experiences severe earthquakes, though in October 2016 a magnitude 5 sparked fears of landslides around the second largest city, Maracaibo. A much stronger 6.4 hit near Caracas in 2009, collapsing homes and injuring at least seven people.