Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo loses wife, children in Venezuela quakes

CARACAS: The wife and two children of Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo were killed in the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela, his club said on Sunday.

Trejo plays for Club Sport Maritimo La Guaira, a second-division side in Venezuela. In a post on Instagram, the club said it deeply regretted the deaths of Trejo's wife Yanina and the couple's children, Aaron and Ainhoa.

According to US media reports cited by the source, Trejo spent three days searching through the rubble for his family before rescue workers recovered their bodies. CNN reported that the 38-year-old player had been attending a team training camp in Caracas when the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes hit on Wednesday evening.

He then rushed back to his home in La Guaira, the state hardest hit by the disaster. Trejo's brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles told CNN that he returned to devastation at the site. "He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been," he added.

Venezuelan authorities said on Sunday that nearly 1,500 people had died in the earthquakes, while tens of thousands were still unaccounted for.