CARACAS: An armed man opened fire inside Venezuela’s central bank on Monday, wounded two people and was shot dead, sources at the institution said.
“The attacker, a young guy, came in with a briefcase and fired shots and said he had a bomb,” said one bank employee, who added two people had been injured.
“He went up to the second floor where the macroeconomic accounts are and he was shot down there.”
A police source outside the central bank’s headquarters in Caracas confirmed the assailant had been shot dead.
Workers huddled in their offices at the bank in downtown Caracas during the episode, the sources said.
The central bank said on Twitter an “irregular situation” in the institution’s financial tower had been controlled. The bank is headquartered in a vast building whose walls are decorated with a big picture of late President Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela is one of the world’s most violent countries and illegal gun possession is common.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Brian Ellsworth, Eyanir Chinea and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alistair Bell)
Reuters
