The death toll has risen to 1,430, with 3,238 injured, according to top lawmaker Jorge Rodríguez, speaking on state TV now.

The lawmaker says the earthquakes are "the most disastrous event this republic has suffered in the last 123 years".

As well as providing updated death and injury tolls, he says 3,142 families are currently in shelters.

There have been 430 subsequent aftershocks following the two earthquakes on Wednesday, he adds.

Rodríguez calls on people to stay at home and avoid travelling to La Guaira state - the worst-hit area which he says suffered "tremendous devastation".

After the earthquake, the US Geological Survey's (USGS) estimate of potential fatalities in the region is most likely between 10,000 and 100,000.

This is not an exact figure of the number of people that may have died - it could be higher or lower.

The USGS issues this figure to help emergency responders, government agencies and the media understand how potentially significant this event is and deploy resources effectively.

The organisation uses something called the PAGER system to calculate this figure.

It looks at many factors including the size of the earthquake, how far below the surface the earthquake started, the amount of ground shaking and the population in the area that could have been exposed. And then based off of previous earthquakes with similar characteristics it gives us a figure.

But many other factors play into the potential injuries and deaths, including the quality of the buildings and the time of day.

If people are sleeping when earthquakes occur it increases the likelihood of not being able to evacuate.

The figure will get updated as more information comes through. But this event has been given a red alert - of which there are usually only 1-2 a year.