A woman caught in the crossfire as she tried to get home complained the looters were criminals taking advantage of what started out as a protest.

"They're just criminals, robbing, burning. I've never seen anything this bad," she said, crying.

Major avenues across the city, with buses blazing, looked like movie scenes of hell. Fires in poor neighborhoods in the hills on the outskirts of the city burned through the afternoon and evening.

Residents in San Agustin del Sur took over the Francisco Fajardo Highway, the city's main artery, Monday afternoon. They fought a battle with police that began with rocks and tear gas and ended with gunfire from both sides.

Drivers panicked and abandoned their cars on the highway, aggravating the already monumental traffic problems caused by the violence. Public transportation broke down completely.

Alex Martinez, a deputy police commissioner, said late Monday that all 6,000 men on the Caracas police force were called out and that at least 100,000 people were stranded in their workplaces.

The city's population is nearly 4 million.

Public hospitals declared a state of emergency.