EL UNIVERSAL

A total of nine people injured were the toll disclosed by General Antonio Rivero, Civil Protection national director, as a result of the turmoil inside Central University of Venezuela (UCV) when a gang of armed subjects stormed in the campus and lambasted the students who were returning from a march staged on Wednesday to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).

Rivero went to UCV to try to mediate in the conflict and clear the way for teachers and students who were stranded inside the School of Social Work. There, some of the gang members sought refuge, as reported by university authorities.

Rivero added that two people were shot. Nobody was dead, he said.

Minutes later, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine Rodolfo Tapa confirmed the news about two shot people only.

Students told private news TV channel Globovisión that the armed subjects took hold of the School of Social Work and they were trying to evict them.

As reported by the dean of the Faculty of Juridical and Political Sciences Jorge Pabón, the subjects were waiting for the students as they arrived from the march, and "hit and knocked them down."

"There is a person with a pistol; there are three people injured, and they have hurled tear gas (…) I saw the person shooting with my own two eyes," student Carlos Mayorca told Globovisión.

"I was there in the march, and they started to hurl rocks from the building; there was shooting and someone was wounded; he was seriously shot in his leg. There are five people in red shirts, hurling stones at us. We have to act; we are fed up; cannot stand it any more," said a student at the Faculty of Dentistry.

UCV Vice-President Edgar Narváez said that they had held discussions with Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Rodríguez, Caracas mayor Juan Barreto and Minister of Higher Education Luis Acuña. Narváez added that they did not authorize the access of security corps to the campus.

The University Council was convened to an emergency meeting and a press conference was to be held next.