This is the shocking moment a protester was fatally blasted at point blank range with a smoke grenade by Venezuelan riot police.

The 27-year-old man, identified as Miguel Castillo, was demonstrating against president Nicolas Maduro who had called an order to rewrite the country's constitution.

Video footage show the victim surrounded by police officers before he is left sprawling on a main road when a shot hits his chest in the residential area of Las Mercedes on the outskirts of Caracas.

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Riot police ride away on motorbikes after appearing to shoot the man with a smoke grenade

Miguel Castillo is transferred to hospital in Venezuela as paramedics battling to keep him alive

The clip, recorded by one of the witnesses, show Castillo surrounded by the officers.

One of them appears to fire a smoke grenade at his chest as they are about to drive away, leaving the man face-down in the street.

After the police ride off on a motorcycle, Castillo is seen walking with difficulty along the motorway and falling to the ground while holding his chest.

Immediately, a man is seen helping him to stand up and dragging him away.

Gerardo Blyde, the Mayor of the city of Baruta, confirmed that Miguel Castillo had died after being shot through his ribs.

'Miguel was the son of a public servant of this government of Baruta.

'We will seek real justice', he added.

The country has been engulfed by violent rioting for weeks against the Venezuelan government.

Castillo is taken away in an ambulance as massive crowds gather outside the hospital

Shooting victim falls to the ground (left) before a man appears and drags him to safety (right)

Riot security forces clash with demonstrators during a protest against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Tariba, Venezuela

An injured man is seen lying face down on the pavement of a street during a demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela, yesterday

Bolivarian National Guards shield themselves from a jar of fecal matter flying toward them, thrown by anti-government protesters in Caracas

Riot security forces clash with demonstrators during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in San Cristobal, Venezuela

Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of the state of Miranda, said that the man responsible of this death is the current President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuelan international footballer Fernando Aristeguieta posted a message online for this latest victim of the ongoing strife in the country, saying: 'My friend Miguel Castillo has just been murdered.

'This could not be they are not going to have enough life to pay everything they have done.

'What pain. Rest in peace, Miguel.'

The recent protests in Venezuela have claimed the lives of 41 people, unofficially, with the official figure being 38 victims.

A protester throws a tear gas canister back to riot policemen of the Bolivarian National Guard

Authorities have been cracking the whip on demonstrators and 1,300 have been detained.

One of those is Jhonny Reyes' son Isleiker Polanco, 19, who left the house to join students on a march a few days ago as one of hundreds of thousands of angry people who have flooded Venezuela's streets in demonstrations often blocked by police and soldiers.

Islkeiker suffers from a mental illness.

He wound up in front of a military tribunal, accused of inciting rebellion and facing up to 30 years behind bars.

Reyes, who is blind, found himself pleading for information outside Punto Fijo naval base with relatives of 17 other young adults detained in the same demonstration in the western city of Coro.

A wall of national guardsmen in green uniforms blocked them from approaching and the blind father was forced to scream out until his boy could follow his voice.

When they finally embraced, Reyes said Islkeiker was shaking with fear.

Human rights activists say more than 250 detained protesters have been put before military justice over the last week.

President Nicolas Maduro's administration says the courts are part of emergency measures necessary to ensure national security against what they decry as foreign-backed attempts to violently oust the socialist government from power.

'Security agencies are deployed in Carabobo to find those responsible for instigating rebellion and crime,' wrote Antonio Jose Benavides Torres, commander of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard, on Twitter after a week of looting and protests in the central Venezuelan state, where the bulk of the military tribunals thus far have taken place.

An anti-riot vehicle of the Bolivarian National Guard is hit with a fire bomb in Caracas

A protester shields himself from the water jet of a water cannon deployed by the Bolivarian National Guard in Caracas, Venezuela

A woman and a girl run away as riot security forces and demonstrators clash during a protest

At least 38 people have been killed in more than a month of protests demanding new elections and in anger over triple-digit inflation, vast food and medical supply shortages and soaring crime.

The demonstrations have frequently ended with police or troops launching rubber bullets and plumes of tear gas at protesters, some of whom have thrown rocks and even human excrement back at police.

Hundreds have been injured and more than 1,300 detained.

Venezuelan people take part in a demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela

As the protests and violent clashes continue to ravage the country, new data revealed thousands of babies died in Venezuela last year, highlighting the tragic impact of the economic crisis as political tension heightened.

The health ministry said deaths of infants under the age of one soared by 30 percent in 2016, a year when hospitals and protesters complained of severe shortages of medical supplies.

Deaths of mothers linked to childbirth soared by two-thirds meanwhile, according to the data published by the ministry -- the latest such figures since 2015.

It said 11,466 babies died in 2016, up from 8,812 the year before. The report gave no comparative rate in relation to the number of births.

Cases of malaria rose by 76 percent to more than 240,000.

The collapse in prices for Venezuela's crucial oil exports has left it short of cash to import medicine and basic goods.

The Venezuelan Medical Federation says hospitals have only three percent of the medicines and supplies that they need to operate normally.

The opposition blames President Nicolas Maduro for the crisis.

Deadly unrest broke out on April 1 as his opponents protested, demanding elections.

In fresh troubles on Wednesday, police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who tried to march to the Supreme Court in Caracas.

Protesters with shields and masks responded by hurling Molotov cocktails, paint bombs and stones.