Shoot-out as Venezuelan forces corner rogue pilot

AT LEAST two people died in a bloody gunfight in Caracas as security forces closed in on an ex-policeman who stole a helicopter and bombed government buildings in a stunt that inspired protesters across Venezuela last summer.

Police traced Óscar Pérez to a rundown area near the capital yesterday after six months on the run following his air raid in June last year.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, five members of the “terrorist cell” were arrested in a shoot-out that lasted several hours and left five injured.

Mr Pérez raised the alarm with a series of posts on Instagram showing him with a bloody face as he claimed to be under siege from regime forces.

He was cornered by special security forces in his hiding place in El Junquito, a poor area 15 miles to the northwest of Caracas, according to Venezuelan authorities.

“They are firing at us with grenade launchers, we said we were going to surrender and they don’t want to let us surrender, they want to kill us,” Mr Pérez said in one of the videos published online during the siege.

Diosdado Cabello, the deputy to Venezeula’s President Nicolás Maduro, confirmed the gunfight on his Twitter account: “The terrorist Óscar Pérez and his band opened fire on the police, killing a policeman, wounding 10, three of them seriously.”

Mr Pérez’s fate was still unknown last night.

Mr Pérez, a former police pilot, has been missing since he hijacked a police helicopter and tossed grenades on the Interior Ministry and Supreme Court. There were no injuries or fatalities.

The attack occurred during a wave of protests against Mr Maduro that left more than 100 dead last year.