Argentine defender Lucas Trejo is searching for his wife and two young children after their apartment building collapsed in the coastal state of La Guaira during the powerful double earthquake that struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening. The 38-year-old, who plays for second-division side Marítimo de La Guaira, was in Caracas for a cup match when the tremors hit and has been unable to reach his family since.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, occurring less than a minute apart, caused widespread destruction across northern Venezuela, with La Guaira among the hardest-hit areas. Venezuelan authorities have issued conflicting provisional casualty figures: interim president Delcy Rodríguez initially reported at least 164 dead and 971 injured, while Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, later cited 188 fatalities and more than 1,520 wounded. All official tallies stress that numbers are expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue.

Trejo’s wife, Yanina Maranella, and their children Aarón and Ainhoa were in the family’s building in the Playa Grande sector when the structure collapsed. The player posted a public appeal on social media, writing: “I don’t know anything about my family. Please pray for them and share this message in case anyone has seen them. I want to believe they weren’t there.” Family members in Córdoba, Argentina, told local media that Trejo reached the site in the early hours of Thursday and described a “war zone” with no electricity and the building completely destroyed. They expressed hope the family might have been out because the son had football practice at that hour, but stressed that no confirmation had been received.

As of Thursday, there is no verified information on the whereabouts of Trejo’s family. Rescue teams are working across La Guaira, where dozens of buildings collapsed, but intermittent communications and power outages have complicated efforts. A separate search is under way for the wife of former Major League Baseball player Gorkys Hernández, who was staying at a hotel in Macuto that also crumbled. Authorities have not released a list of those rescued or identified, and the search for survivors remains the priority.