Officials fear the number of victims will continue to rise, with at least 58,000 people reported missing.

The worst-hit areas include La Guaira, a coastal region north of the capital, Caracas, where entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble.

The US military has deployed elite search and rescue teams to help locate survivors buried beneath collapsed buildings.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US had prepared a “whole government response”.

“It’ll be big, it’ll be fast and it’ll be effective”, he said.

The disaster began when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck, followed just minutes later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor – the most powerful to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

Satellite images reveal the scale of the destruction, showing entire districts obliterated with buildings flattened to the ground.

Residents woke on Thursday to scenes of devastation, with roads split apart, homes destroyed and helicopters circling overhead as emergency crews searched for survivors.

The US Geological Survey estimates the final death toll could reach anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

The United Nations warned that a “massive collective effort” will be needed to respond to the catastrophe, as leaders from Mexico, Qatar, Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Canada pledged to send emergency aid.

US Marine Corps Major General Kevin J. Jarrad arrived in Caracas on Friday to oversee the American military’s disaster relief operation.

Meanwhile, elite search-and-rescue squad USA-01 is preparing to deploy 79 personnel, 70,000 pounds of specialist equipment and six sniffer dogs to the quake-hit region.

The team, made up of firefighters, paramedics, engineers and canine handlers, has previously responded to major natural disasters, including the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

The twin earthquakes struck around 100 miles west of Caracas, triggering scenes of panic as terrified residents fled swaying buildings.

Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez declared a nationwide state of emergency within hours of the disaster.

But desperate mother-of-three Dayana Delgado questioned where the heavy machinery promised by officials had gone.

“I want to know where my child is, if he’s trapped or in a shelter”, she said of her missing eight-year-old son.

Another distraught woman said her daughter remained trapped inside a 12-storey building.

“There are people alive in there and no one is coming to save them,” she said.

Across the country, families have put up missing-person posters and circulated handwritten lists of names in a frantic search for loved ones.

Venezuelan state television broadcast dramatic rescue footage, including the moment emergency crews pulled a woman alive from beneath a concrete slab after only one of her feet could be seen sticking out.

The coastal town of La Guaira has suffered some of the worst destruction, with several apartment blocks left as hollow shells.

Interim leader Rodríguez said the official death toll does not yet include victims in La Guaira because rescue crews are still struggling to clear the wreckage and recover bodies.

She also announced the creation of a $200million fund, financed through the International Monetary Fund, to help rebuild homes, hospitals and infrastructure over the coming weeks.