Venezuela ( Two U.S.Embassy Officials shot in a Venezuela Night club )

 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday that two officials at its embassy in Venezuela were hospitalized after they were wounded in a shooting incident at a Caracas social club.

“Two members of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning,” department spokesman William Ostick said.

“Medical staff inform us that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. Embassy security and health unit personnel are at the hospital and have been in touch with the two individuals and their families,” he said.

A doctor at the capital hospital where the pair were taken, identified as Carlos Pacheco, told CNN that the officials were wounded in a shootout at a nightclub in the northwestern portion of Caracas.

Both employees were shot in the abdomen and one of them was also shot in the leg, Pacheco said.

The incident happened in “some sort of social spot or somewhere outside of the embassy grounds,” according to the State Department’s Patrick Ventrell.

The wounded pair are not necessarily State Department personnel and may belong to other U.S. agencies that have a presence in Venezuela, Ventrell said.

The State Department said it is not aware whether any arrests have been made in the case, but it is remaining “in contact with local authorities” on that subject, he added. EFE