Two strong earthquakes have hit near Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Let’s show you these live images now from the ground in Caracas, as you can see there we look at what is looking to be appearing to be a collapsed building.

The first quake had a magnitude of 7.1, that was followed by a 7.5 magnitude quake soon after, that’s according to the US Geological Survey. An earlier tsunami warning has now been cancelled for Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Now the Geological Survey says high casualties and extensive damage are probable in Venezuela after the quake. Residents in neighboring Colombia also reported feeling tremors as many Venezuelans were at home celebrating a public holiday, we understand, when the quake hit.

Let’s bring in our correspondent Will Grant who is monitoring the situation for us from Mexico City. Will, good to see you, just bring us up to date on what you’ve been hearing.

Yeah, it sounds like they were twin and both very hard earthquakes, very strong earthquakes, truly rattled the capital Caracas. As you said, felt as far afield as Bogota. Tsunami warnings initially for parts of the Caribbean including Bonaire and Aruba now thankfully been lifted for residents in those parts of the world.

But of course in Caracas, people still unsure if all of their family members are safe and well, there are people who have cracked and damaged buildings and therefore are still in the streets and very fearful of the potential aftershocks. Too scared essentially to go back into their apartment buildings, and of course people also of course trying to get in touch with family members in the affected state of Carabobo.

And and trying to establish just how bad matters are there, the Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has been on state television. And said that there are downed buildings, that some buildings have collapsed, but we don’t know if there are people inside them at the time or just how bad things are. We’re still trying to establish just how bleak the picture is.

Indeed, Will, that’s looks like what we’re looking at right now from these images we are getting at the moment from Caracas, emergency services on hand.

I just want to ask you before we let you go, what do we know about this region where this these quakes have struck?

Well, Carabobo is an important state, it’s an important economic motor for the country, it includes the city of Valencia. Now, I’ve been to that part of Venezuela a number of times, buildings are reasonably robust, but of course across Venezuela. Particularly the rural parts where there are a lot of shacks and of course, so the thronging the capital Caracas, there are these shanty towns, the barrios, the famous barrios of Caracas. Where the the homes are very poorly constructed, very flimsy, often just brick shacks, so there is plenty of potential for widespread damage.

Again, I think we will start getting up updates reasonably soon from the authorities, such is sort of the clamor for information and the potential for disinformation on social media at a time like this.

Yeah, of course, okay, Will, thank you very much from Mexico City. They’re monitoring the situation for us there and we’ll just continue to look at some of those live pictures from Caracas if we can.

That is the image that we have at this hour, of course, it is dark, you see emergency services on hand and just the rubble there of what appears to be a building in the capital. We don’t have any information as Will said there yet about injuries, about possible casualties, if anyone was in these buildings that have been downed as confirmed by the Interior Ministry.

As we said, the first quake a magnitude of 7.1 followed by a 7.5 magnitude quake soon after. Certainly good news that that initial tsunami warning that had been issued for Puerto Rico and Bonaire, that that has now been recalled as we understand, but at this moment we’re waiting to hear some more information about what indeed has happened.

The BBC’s Vanessa Silva was able to send us this report from Caracas itself.

I’m in the center of the city of Caracas where a lot of buildings are without power electricity after the earthquake. That hit the north of the Venezuela around 6:00 in the afternoon today. A lot of people are trying to look how to go back to their homes. The metro system is completely closed, all the stations. So it was just at the time that people were getting out of work, before even that, today is a holiday day here in Caracas, Venezuela.

All the structure shakes very strong in the capital. In my home, I can see how many things fell down and broken in my building and neighborhood. One of my neighborhood, she fell down and break her arms. I don’t know at this moment if how many victims are, but we can see videos coming from social media from infrastructure collapses in the city and the news will be coming on in the next hours.