By Ben Tavener
Two further deaths have been reported by officials in Venezuela's capital Caracas, where unrest has continued between supporters and opponents of embattled president Nicolas Maduro.
Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the country's ruling Socialist Party, the PSUV, said on Thursday that a member of the National Guard and a motorcycle driver had been killed after opposition protesters erected a barricade on a main street in the Los Ruices area of east Caracas.
The area, an opposition stronghold, is reported to have seen a far greater police presence in recent days.
Cabello told a press conference that the two people had been “killed by a sniper”, although no further details were given. Local media and people however said that “armed men on motorcycles” had been in the area, trying to dismantle the barricades.
Some protesters took to Twitter to post pictures of the chaotic scene, and one wrote that the “militia are torching any cars parked in the street.”
Police used tear and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators in Los Ruices, which reports say numbered “several hundred.”
At least twenty people – including both government supporters and opponents – have now died in the near month-long wave of violence, which is the worst the country has seen in a decade. Some reports suggest over 1,000 people have been detained, and human rights organizations say there are credible reports of protesters being tortured.
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