Bogotá / Anadolu

Venezuelan Parliament Speaker Jorge Rodríguez announced Saturday that the death toll from the earthquake disaster has risen to 4,333.

Rodríguez said in a press conference in the capital Caracas that the death toll had increased by 215 to reach 4,333, while the number of injured reached 16,740.

He added that the government plans to build 25,000 housing units to shelter more than 17,900 people who lost their homes.

The Venezuelan parliament speaker indicated that implementing this plan requires the release of financial resources he said are "illegally frozen."

He pointed out that the number of displaced people may rise as assessments of damaged buildings are completed.

He confirmed that debris removal and search for victims continue.

The parliament speaker revealed that there are 315 unidentified bodies.

He added: "As of yesterday (Friday), 315 people have not been identified, as their families could not recognize them, and their fingerprints did not match any data recorded in the system, which represents about 7 percent of the total victims."

Rodríguez noted that authorities distributed 9,766 tons of food and 13.9 million liters of water to those affected.

He continued that the country has experienced 1,203 aftershocks since the two earthquakes.

On June 24, a double earthquake struck Venezuela, the first with a magnitude of 7.2 and the second with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale.

The United Nations Development Programme announced on June 26 that the cost of direct physical damage is estimated at about $6.7 billion.

Search and rescue operations continue in the country, amid fears that the death and injury tolls will continue to rise.