National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez told a state television broadcast Friday that the death toll had reached 920, and at least 172 people were still trapped.
In La Guaira alone, at least 243 people were rescued, said the top lawmaker, who is the brother of the interim president.
Dozens of people were rescued alive, which “brings us the joy of being able to hug their families and loved ones,” interim President Delcy Rodríguez said Friday during a televised press briefing.
There have been 214 aftershocks since the first earthquakes, she added.
On Saturday, the UN’s Tom Fletcher said crews on BBC Radio 4’s Today program were responding as the first 72 hours after the earthquake were “crucial”.
“It’s absolutely grim, it’s devastating and for us, we are carried away minute by minute, hour by hour, by the sound of survivors under the rubble.”
“We can’t stop for a second while we hear them, but the worst part is when those voices go silent. We are determined to save as many lives as possible.”
Some reports indicate rescuers pulled people out of collapsed buildings with their bare hands, as disrupted communications, damaged roads and a lack of resources made the initial emergency response difficult.
Fletcher said the UN has 39 deployed search and rescue teams, each made up of 50 to 100 people.
“You see almost 2,000 people coming in, 111 dogs, as well as medical teams. We come in with these micro drones, they call them cockroach drones, that help us find people in the buildings.”
A British military flight carrying British search and rescue teams, dogs and drones left RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday, bound for Venezuela.
The flight carries specialists from 14 UK fire services, led by Merseyside Fire and Rescue.
Other countries, including the United States, the Netherlands, Mexico and Switzerland, sent teams. The US also announced the deployment of warships and transport aircraft as well as $150m (£113m) in aid.
A BBC journalist in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, saw heavy machinery arrive to begin removing the rubble.
One case that has lifted morale across Venezuela is the rescue in La Guaira of three young brothers and sisterswho emerged from the rubble covered in dust and debris, images broadcast by state television showed.
“Come here, child, come here,” a man says to the first child as he emerges alive from a gap between pieces of concrete.
A girl then appears and the man asks her: “Are you brothers and sisters?”, to which she replies: “Yes, there are three of us”.
Shortly after, with a little more difficulty, the third sister appeared, sobbing and covered in dust from head to toe.
Tributes are paid to those who died. The wife of Venezuelan footballer Héctor Bello was killed while saving their daughteraccording to his social networks and local news.
Bello wrote on Instagram that “his precious love,” referred to by Venezuelan media as his wife Andrea, saved their child’s life during the earthquakes.
“I’m going to tell her how you saved her, my love – how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who never gave up on her, even when you took your last breath,” Bello wrote in a message.
A Portuguese national and two Brazilian citizens were also among those killed, their governments confirmed.
Four Spanish nationals were also among the dead, and 106 are still missing, Spanish media reported citing the Foreign Ministry.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said several states were affected by the two quakes. In Caracas, the most affected areas were the neighborhoods of Los Palos Grandes and Altamira.
The government said aftershocks largely affected the country’s northern coast, including La Guaira, Aragua, Carabobo and Falcón.
Leopoldo Lopez, a Venezuelan opposition leader living in exile in Spain, told BBC News the devastation had been “enormous” and people were “in shock”.
He said that “unfortunately, we are witnessing a parallel collapse of infrastructure, as well as the state’s inability to provide timely relief assistance to people in devastated areas.”
However, there has been “enormous support from Venezuelan civil society”, he added.
This natural disaster comes at a time of great uncertainty for Venezuela.
Less than six months ago, Nicolas Maduro, the left-wing leader who had ruled the country since 2013, was seized by American forces in Caracas before being flown back to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Maduro ally and former vice president Delcy Rodríguez took over the leadership of the countrymuch to the frustration of opposition supporters who hoped the Trump administration would put opposition leader María Corina Machado in charge.
Additional reporting by Vanessa Silva in La Guaria
