At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft have been heard in Venezuela’s capital Caracas in the early hours of this morning.
It comes amid Donald Trump‘s escalating threats against the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro – although the cause of the blasts is yet to be confirmed.
The explosions are understood to have begun at 1.50am local time with one targeting Fort Tiona, where the Venezuelan ministry of defense is headquartered.
The southern area of the city, which is near a major military base, has been without electricity.
Follow our live blog below for the latest updates
Pictured: Explosions rock Venezuela
Huge columns of smoke and large explosions could be seen rising above Caracaras in the early hours of this morning.
The blasts came amid growing tensions between Trump and Maduro’s regime, with the first military land strike on Venezuela taking place on Christmas Eve.
Pictured: Pedestrians flee as blasts rock the city
People in various neighborhoods of Caracas rushed to the streets after aircraft and explosions were heard.
Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke have been heard and seen in the Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning.
‘The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes in the distance,’ said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling.
She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. ‘We felt like the air was hitting us.’
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
