(8 Nov 2007) SHOTLIST

1. Zoom into students exiting side door of Central University of Venezuela building as masked student throws rocks at building UPSOUND Gunshots
2. Wide of students running through university campus as shots are being fired
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Antonio Rivero, director of Venezuela's Civil Defence agency:
"Basically, it was a clash between students of different political views. A student clash generated between university students and other students that came into the university. There were shots fired and stones and other hard objects were thrown and seven people were injured. We carried out an operation trying to mediate the situation and calm people to avoid any deaths and to rescue people that were not involved in any of this that were inside the building"
4. Various of student protesters outside university building
5. Close of door set on fire by protesters
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Student protester, Vox pop:
"This is a bullet cap, 9 millimetres, two students were killed with this today...two."
7. Wide of people exiting university building through side door

STORYLINE

Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march on Wednesday in which 80-thousand people denounced Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's attempts to expand his power.

At least eight people were injured, including one by gunfire, officials said.

Photojournalists from the Associated Press reported seeing at least two gunmen, one wearing a ski mask and another covering his face with a T-shirt, firing handguns at the anti-Chavez crowd.

Terrified students ran through the campus as ambulances arrived.

National Guard troops gathered outside the Central University of Venezuela, the nation's largest and a centre for opposition to Chavez's government.

Venezuelan law bars state security forces from entering the campus, but Luis Acuna, the minister of higher education, said they could be called in if the university requested them.

Antonio Rivero, director of Venezuela's Civil Defence agency, told AP Television at least seven people were injured, but no one had been killed in the clashes between university students and other students that came into the university.

"Basically, it was a clash between students of different political views," he said.

"There were shots fired and stones and other hard objects were thrown and seven people were injured. We carried out an operation trying to mediate the situation and calm people to avoid any deaths and to rescue people that were not involved in any of this that were inside the building," he added.

The violence broke out after tens of thousands of anti-Chavez demonstrators, led by university students, marched peacefully to the Supreme Court to protest constitutional changes that Venezuelans will consider in a December referendum.

The amendments would abolish presidential term limits, giving the president control over the Central Bank and allowing him to create new provinces governed by handpicked officials.

The protesters demanded that the referendum be suspended, saying the amendments would weaken civil liberties in one of South America's oldest democracies and give Chavez unprecedented power to declare states of emergency.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, denies the reforms threaten freedom. He says they would instead move Venezuela toward what he calls "21st century socialism."

The Supreme Court is unlikely to act on the students' demands, given that pro-Chavez lawmakers appointed all 32 of its justices.


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