When night falls on Venezuela’s ghostly capital, an unnerving hush grips the streets of this once-bustling South American metropolis.

“You feel a profound silence all around you,” said Alejandro Guzmán, a 26-year-old lawyer and one of millions of Venezuelans left in the dark after their country was hit by an unprecedented blackout some believe could have dramatic implications for its political future. “It’s like a city of shadows.”

Like many Venezuelans, Guzmán has spent most of the last three days without electricity after a crippling outage – that Nicolás Maduro’s beleaguered administration is blaming on foreign saboteurs – struck at about 5pm on Thursday afternoon plunging virtually the entire country into the gloom.

“I feel frustrated and I feel angry about what is happening – but we saw this coming,” Guzmán said on Sunday lunchtime, shortly after the lights came back on in his neighbourhood of eastern Caracas.

Guzmán’s elderly grandmother, aged 80 and suffering from Alzheimer’s, was less lucky. Across town, in the western municipality of Libertador, she remained in the dark.

“The situation is critical,” her grandson said. “She has people who love her around her. But everyone at her age in this situation is in danger.”

The Chavista mayor of Caracas, Érika Farías, told state media on Sunday that electricity supply had been restored to 22 of the city’s 32 parishes.

As night fell in Caracas, lights began to flicker on across the city, lifting a shroud of darkness that had been interrupted only sporadically since Thursday. Fearful that the power could go again, residents continued to stockpile water and food staples from the few shops that opened their doors while other cities across Venezuela continue to report blackouts.

As the power problems entered a fourth day there was anger, exasperation and growing fear over the human toll the dramatic collapse of its electricity system would take.

People queue to buy food at Petare neighborhood in Caracas on Sunday during a massive power outage. Photograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

There was concern, too, that the outage might spark disorder and, in turn, repression as Maduro’s security forces sought to quell any unrest. On Sunday there were reports of looting in at least two of Venezuela’s 23 states.

“Venezuela is on the verge of a total collapse,” tweeted Bolivia’s former president Jorge Quiroga. “In a few hours the surreal dystopia of Mad Max will be unleashed.”

Maduro, who has made only one public appearance since the outage began, tried to reassure citizens that his embattled government was in control.

“We are making great efforts to restore supply … in the coming hours,” Hugo Chávez’s heir tweeted.

At a rally of supporters on Saturday, Maduro claimed the blackout was the result of a White House-backed “electricity war” designed to topple his administration and replace him with a US “puppet”.

But Maduro’s political challenger – the opposition leader Juan Guaidó – slammed the leftist’s “dictatorship” for failing to restore electricity and warned “hard days” lay ahead as the true extent of the disaster became clearer.

“Sixteen states are still completely in the dark … We need to deal with this catastrophe now,” said Guaidó, who most western governments now recognize as Venezuela’s rightful interim leader.

Guaidó called for fresh street protests and summoned an extraordinary session of the country’s opposition-controlled national assembly for Monday at which he pledged to declare a national emergency. “What we are living through right now in Venezuela is like a science fiction movie,” the 35-year-old politician told reporters.

With already buckling hospitals across the country starved of electricity, there was particular concern for the wellbeing of terminally ill patients and newborn babies in need of treatment in intensive care units.

There were unconfirmed reports that dozens of newborn babies had died in a hospital in the western city of Maracaibo as a result of the blackout. At least 13 patients were reported to have died in a hospital in the city of Maturín, 540km east of the capital.

People gather to collect water in Caracas on Sunday. Photograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

“You try not to think about everything that is going on,” said Zoraida Córdoba, the 67-year-old wife of a dialysis patient who had gone nearly four days without treatment until finally managing to find treatment on Sunday lunchtime at a clinic in Caracas.

“There hasn’t been power in my house since Thursday afternoon. We can’t even buy food because the ATMs aren’t working,” said Córdoba, from Petare, a sprawling shantytown in the city’s east.

As she queued for food supplies on Sunday morning, Marlene Márquez described how her elderly parents had been stranded in their 16th-floor flat by the outage.

“They are trapped in their home as they can’t get up and down all those stairs. When I visit I have to light the way with candles,” she complained.

“These blackouts mean everything gets ruined. Chicken and meat in the fridge goes bad, so do medicines that need to be kept cold,” Márquez added. “And just like there was no power, there was also no water.”

By night, the streets of Caracas have the air of an apocalyptic movie. With communications down, people stand on the roofs of their cars, desperately hoping to pick up a signal. Customs officials at Venezuela’s main international airport used flashlights on their mobile phones to check passports.

Desireé García, a 36-year-old mother-of-three, poured scorn on Maduro’s claims that the opposition and its US-backers were behind the outage.

A worker inside a bakery. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters

“It’s a joke to say it was sabotage. It’s all a lie,” fumed García, who scrapes by on remittances sent home by her husband, who fled to Chile in search of work.

“I’m neither a Chavista nor from the opposition. I just say what I see … There is no light because they don’t do their jobs, they don’t maintain things.”

Guzmán agreed the blackout – which he, like many, blames on government incompetence and corruption – was a calamity foretold and said the lack of electricity would re-energize anti-Maduro protests. “I believe we are going to see more and more demonstrations, every day,” he predicted.

But Guzmán admitted he also felt trepidation about what the days ahead might bring.

“We feel anxious,” he said. “We don’t know if this is going to be the new normal.”

José Manuel Olivares, a doctor and opposition politician who is tracking the power cut’s impact on Venezuela’s healthcare system, said at least ​18 deaths had been confirmed​​.



“But we are certain there are more,” Olivares added, pointing to how it had been impossible to contact many hospitals ​because they were still without electricity. “I feel indignant and worried – for the patients, for my friends, for my parents.”