His father and brother also travelled from Argentina to assist firefighters, military personnel and volunteers searching through the debris.

The search for survivors saw desperate attempts by local residents to claw away rubble from buildings that collapsed in Wednesday's two quakes.

Those killed included 28 Portuguese nationals, five Spaniards, two Brazilians, seven Chinese nationals, one Chilean and one Italian-Venezuelan

Initial USGS estimate showed strong chance of death toll topping 10,000

20 aftershocks had followed the earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, which struck the same area of Venezuela