A week after the deadly twin earthquakes in Venezuela, the official death count still strikes both Venezuelans and outside observers as remarkably low. Venezuelan authorities said at least 2,295 people were killed in the earthquakes, an increase of around 300 from the previous day’s update.

Undercounting Deaths

One forensic pathologist, who asked to remain anonymous due to her fear of retaliation, told CNN she believes the government death toll to be a vast undercount, amounting to “not even a third of what is actually there.” The pathologist said the makeshift morgue where she works in the port city of La Guaira, an area badly impacted by the quakes, is processing around 400 bodies a day, many of them battered beyond recognition or in advanced states of decay.

There are still many people unseen beneath the rubble of the collapsed high-rise buildings, and it may take some time for a full picture of the casualties to emerge. CNN has reached out to the Venezuelan government to ask how it conducts its count and for estimates on how many people are considered missing in the aftermath of the earthquakes.

International Response

Initial estimates from the US Geological Survey said that there is a high chance that tens of thousands of people died in the back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes. The Venezuelan government, beyond its daily death toll updates, has not provided an estimate of its own for the final number of deceased.

Gianluca Rampolla del Tindaro, the United Nations’ coordinator for Venezuela, said at a Tuesday press conference, “We are definitely looking at a number higher than the one already reported.”

Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.