Security forces confronted protesters across Venezuela on Thursday night after they mounted burning street barricades and shot dead a supporter of President Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Maduro said a “fascist bullet” had killed Alexis Martinez, brother to a Socialist Party legislator, in the city of Barquisimeto.

A local journalist said Mr Martinez was shot in the chest while passing an opposition protest.

The most sustained clashes were in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been especially volatile since hard-line opposition leaders called their supporters onto the streets in early February.

In Tachira state capital San Cristobal many businesses remained shut as students and police faced off again in barricaded streets.

With some residents not daring leave their homes because of the violence, the government said it was taking “special measures” to restore order.

“This is not a militarisation,” Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said on state television from San Cristobal.

“We are here to work for the great majority of people in Tachira. Before we have dialogue, we must have order.”

Mr Maduro has said clearly that he will not let his opponents turn Tachira into “a Benghazi.”

On Wednesday night, Caracas saw one of the worst bouts of violence since the protests began nearly three weeks ago.

Security forces fired tear gas and bullets at a square in the wealthier east of the city, chasing youths who hurled Molotov cocktails and blocked roads with burning piles of rubbish.