Updated April 22, 2017 14:26:24

Looters have been electrocuted during a rampage in Caracas, as large-scale violent protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro continue.

The accident, which killed eight people, occurred when a group of looters broke into a bakery in the working class neighbourhood of El Valle, according a firefighter who asked not be identified.

The public prosecutor's office said on Friday it was investigating 11 deaths in El Valle, adding that "some" victims had died from being electrocuted.

Nine other people have been killed in violence associated with a wave of anti-Government demonstrations in the past three weeks, in which protesters have clashed with security forces in melees lasting well into the night that culminated in the "mother of all marches" on Wednesday.

Protesters accuse Mr Maduro of trying to create a dictatorship.

"Yesterday around 9 or 10 (Thursday evening) things got pretty scary, a group of people carrying weapons came down ... and started looting," said Hane Mustafa, owner of a small supermarket in El Valle, where broken bottles of soy and tomato sauce littered the floor between bare shelves.

"The security situation is not in the hands of the Government. We lost everything here."

Photo: One shop owner said looters armed with guns and knives attacked about 30 businesses in El Valle. (AP: Fernando Llano)

Dozens of businesses in the area showed signs of looting, ranging from empty shelves to broken windows and twisted metal entrance gates.

It was not immediately possible to confirm details of the incident with hospital or other officials.

Hugo Chavez launched a socialist revolution after he was elected in 1998, but under successor Nicolas Maduro, the oil-rich country has become a failing state.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for details. Security forces patrolled much of Caracas on Friday, including El Valle.

Mr Maduro's Government is so far resisting calls for change, as opposition leaders draw support from a public angered by the country's collapsing economy.

Ruling Socialist Party leaders describe the protesters as hoodlums who are damaging public property and disrupting public order to overthrow the Government with the support of ideological adversaries in Washington.

Vice-President Tareck El Aissami said the country faced what he called an "unconventional war" led by opposition groups working in concert with criminal gangs.

Photo: Demonstrators clash with riot police in Caracas on Wednesday. (Reuters: Carlos Garcia Rawlins)

He said claims by the opposition that Government forces were responsible for launching tear gas at a maternity hospital during a protest were just another attempt to demoralise people who have "decided to break ties with the bourgeoisie forever".

Opposition leaders have promised to keep up their protests, demanding that Mr Maduro's Government call general elections, free almost 100 jailed opposition activists and respect the autonomy of the opposition-led Congress.

The OPEC nation's economy has been in free-fall since the collapse of oil prices in 2014.

The generous oil-financed welfare state created by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Mr Maduro's predecessor, has given way to a Soviet-style economy marked by consumer shortages, triple-digit inflation and snaking supermarket lines.

Many Venezuelans say they have to skip meals in order to feed their children.

Public anger at the situation spilled over last month when the Supreme Court, which is seen as close to the Government, briefly assumed the powers of the Congress.

The protests were further fuelled when the Government barred the opposition's best-known leader, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, from holding public office.

Photo: Hundreds of thousands of people protested against President Maduro in Caracas. (Reuters: Christian Veron)

Reuters/AP

Topics: activism-and-lobbying, government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, venezuela

First posted April 22, 2017 13:00:28