At least two people were dead, five missing and 25,000 affected as Hurricane Beryl ripped through northeast Venezuela's Sucre state, Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos said Tuesday.
"To date we can say that, unfortunately, two people have died, five are missing, and we are in a permanent, direct search (for survivors and victims)," Ceballos told state-run Venezolana de Television.
"We are talking about 25,000 people affected by the rains," he added.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said via social media X that a commission made up of ministers is on its way to Sucre to address the situation.
Since early Tuesday, the city of Cumanacoa, Sucre, was flooded by rain dumped by Beryl, which also led the area's Manzanares River to overflow.
The category 5 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 270 km per hour as it moved at 35 km per hour across the Venezuelan Caribbean, according to an early morning report issued by the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.