GENEVA, Switzerland(AFP)—International search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are being scrambled to Venezuela to help look for survivors of devastating twin earthquakes, the United Nations said Friday.

Getting those teams to the scene is the “top priority”, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.

“Earthquakes are one of the most devastating things that can happen to any country,” spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

“But what we are seeing right now is also an international mobilisation at its very best. The entire humanitarian system is moving very fast, and at scale.”

The 7.5- and 7.2-magnitude earthquakes on Wednesday are known to have killed at least 589 people.

So far, a total of 25 teams — 17 national urban search and rescue teams, with the rest emergency medical response teams — were being deployed, with a total of 1,000 rescue personnel, said Laerke.

Teams from Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States were already in Venezuela, he said.

Teams from Britain, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar and Spain among others are also being mobilised.

– Rescue still the priority –

UN and other humanitarian agencies insisted Friday that the international community “must not allow this emergency to deepen into a larger human tragedy” in fragile Venezuela.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee — a forum of United Nations and non-UN humanitarian organisation chiefs — called for “rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” to those affected.

The World Health Organization said the immediate needs included mass casualty management and trauma care, particularly in areas with collapsed buildings.

“The overriding priority is to rescue as many people as possible while urgently providing life-saving health care to the injured,” said Ciro Ugarte, emergencies director for PAHO, the UN health agency’s Americas regional branch.

“The first 72 hours are critical to saving lives,” he said, speaking from Washington.

“Hospitals are managing injuries such as broken bones and head injuries, but also we are seeing burns and other injuries that result from building collapse,” he said.

The number of deaths and injuries would “significantly increase” in the coming hours and days, he warned.

Ugarte said the earthquakes had hit a fragile health system, but more than 15 health ministries in the region had pledged support and were ready to deploy teams.

He said PAHO experts were mapping the affected health facilities. They had identified more than 90 hospitals exposed to shaking intensities beyond six and seven on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

“We are prioritising those facilities, including the assessment of the structural safety, emergency department capacities, operating theatres, inpatient beds, blood supply, and oxygen,” he said.

– People ‘terrified’: Red Cross –

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world’s largest humanitarian network, said the first 17 tonnes of humanitarian aid was leaving from the IFRC’s logistics hub in Panama.

It includes kitchen sets, hygiene kits, mosquito nets, tents and blankets.

The IFRC has released two million Swiss francs ($2.5 million) from its Disaster Response Emergency Fund, and launched an appeal for 50 million Swiss francs to help the Venezuelan Red Cross assist 300,000 people.

“After two nights, people are still terrified to re-enter what were their homes,” said Loyce Pace, the IFRC’s Americas regional director, speaking from Panama.

She said Red Cross societies had programmes for restoring family links with the diaspora, and would be working to help people trace loved ones.

The UN refugee agency meanwhile voiced concerns about the impact on returnees to Venezuela, who it said were already facing many challenges to reintegrate.

UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said a temporary accomodation centre, hosting around 140 recent returnees from the United States, had collapsed.