A VENEZUELAN businessman who bet that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles would win the recent presidential election killed the two people who won the bet and then used his vehicle to run down five people who were celebrating Hugo Chavez's win, police say.

Juan Losada, police chief of the town of San Francisco in the northwestern state of Zulia, told EFE that the killings began immediately after the results of Sunday's presidential election were announced.

Abigal Villasmil, 29, is being sought by police after allegedly shooting and killing Nelson Oviedo, 21, and Alexander Anez, 23, with whom he reportedly had bet a large amount of money that Capriles would win the election, Losada said.

Immediately after the news that Chavez had won was released, and so that he would not have to make good on the bet, Villasmil allegedly shot Oviedo and Anez, with whom he was watching television in a home in San Francisco.

After killing the pair, he fled, but just a few blocks from the murder scene Villasmil drove his car into a crowd of people celebrating Chavez's triumph "killing four immediately and another who died later in a hospital," the police chief said.

"We have found the vehicle, but not Villasmil, who remains a fugitive."

He added that witnesses to the bet - and perhaps the initial crime - had not wanted to contribute information to the investigation, including the size of the bet.