Reuters/Caracas
Eight Venezuelan police officers have been arrested for the alleged murder of four men, the state prosecutors' office said, shortly after a video began circulating on social networks that appeared to show an execution.
The video shows a young man being held by men in uniform and then falling to the ground after a gunshot is heard. Three other people are seen lying motionless on the ground nearby.
The officers will be charged with "alleged responsibility in the death of four men" between the ages of 21 and 35 in an operation carried out in an industrial area on August 5, the prosecutors' office said in a statement.
The Interior Ministry said separately it had opened an investigation into the police force of Aragua state, at the request of the state's governor.
Violent crime is one of the top citizen concerns in Venezuela, which has the world's second-worst homicide rate after Honduras, according to the United Nations.
The government of President Nicolas Maduro says adversaries have exaggerated the problem for political effect.
