The Venezuelan government hunted on Wednesday for rogue policemen who attacked key installations by helicopter, but critics of President Nicolas Maduro suspected the raid may have been staged to justify repression.
In extraordinary scenes over Caracas around sunset on Tuesday, the stolen helicopter fired shots at the Interior Ministry and dropped grenades on the Supreme Court, both viewed by Venezuela's opposition as bastions of support for a dictator.
Nobody was injured and the aircraft, identified by the government as an Airbus Bolkow 105, apparently referring to the Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Bo 105, was gone.