Venezuelans in the capital city of Caracas have turned to looting as a nearly nationwide blackout gripping the economically struggling nation entered its fifth consecutive day Monday.

Sweeping power outages have ground business to a halt and left the South American nation’s public transportation and hospitals crippled since Thursday.

The death toll rose to 17 on Monday, according to opposition leader Juan Guiadó, who seeks to wrest power from President Nicolas Maduro.

The oil-rich nation has struggled with out-of-control inflation, rendering its currency practically worthless. Photos show trees in Caracas festooned with now-worthless bolívar notes, and desperate residents have turned to looting as the country teeters on the edge of total mayhem.

“We don’t want to loot stores, we don’t want to cause problems. What we want is food. We’re hungry,” a Caracas resident named Majorie told the BBC.

Photos show ransacked grocery stores and security forces detaining groups of dozens of people amid looting. Pro-government biker gangs known “colectivos” reportedly are enforcing vigilante law at gunpoint.

So far, 17 people have died due to a lack of power in hospitals — including an infant in a Caracas neonatal center, according to reports.

“As we walked through the ward, we saw a mother crying and we found out that one of the babies in intermediate care had died,” a nurse named Patricia told BBC.

Some children reportedly were being kept alive by manual respiration.

Guaidó, the country’s self-described interim president — who has the support of more than 20 nations, including the US — called the deaths “murders” on Sunday.

“I can’t call it anything else, due to lack of electricity. Imagine if in your country, you wake to the news that there’s been four days without electricity because they steal from electricity plants and 17 people died. That’s murder,” he said, according to CNN.

Maduro has claimed US espionage was responsible for the failure of Venezuela’s national electrical system, but regional authorities blamed problems at the country’s main power plants.