Venezuelans yesterday converged on a polluted river in Caracas to fill water bottles and held scattered protests in several cities as a growing sense of chaos took hold in a country where people have had little power, water and communications for days.

A three-year-old girl with a brain tumour languished in a Caracas hospital, awaiting treatment after doctors started surgery but then suspended the operation when nationwide power outages first hit on Thursday, said the girl’s fearful mother, who only gave her first name, Yalimar.

“The doctors told me that there are no miracles,” said Yalimar, who hopes her daughter can be transferred to one of the few hospitals in Venezuela able to finish the complex procedure.

The girl’s story highlighted an unfolding horror in Venezuela, where years of hardship for millions of people got abruptly worse after the power grid collapsed, intensifying the country’s long-running misery.

Yesterday, schools and businesses were closed, long lines of cars waited at the few petrol stations with electricity and hospitals cared for many patients without power. Generators have alleviated conditions for some critically ill.

There were also acts of kindness: people whose food would rot in fridges without power donated it to a restaurant, which cooked it for distribution to the poor and hospitals.

Information about developments across the country was difficult to gather because communications were unreliable. Engineers restored power in some areas, but it often goes out again.

There have been a few protests in the Venezuelan capital, and reports of similar shows of anti-government anger in the cities of Maracaibo and Maturin. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó tweeted about reports of looting in some cities, but the reports were difficult to confirm.

In Caracas, some people reported sightings of “colectivos” – armed groups allegedly operating on behalf of the state to intimidate opponents. While President Nicolás Maduro and government officials say they are working hard to restore power and provide basic necessities, the mood in Caracas is desperate.

Marian Morales, a nurse working for a Catholic youth group, and several colleagues handed out nappies and food from their car, parked near a hospital. Police and men in civilian clothing ordered them to leave, saying they didn’t have permission.

Ms Morales said the needy are cautious about approaching to collect the handouts because of the security forces.

The opposition-controlled National Assembly debated the power cuts and declared that the situation was an emergency, a largely symbolic move aimed at pressuring Mr Maduro. Mr Guaidó criticised the government’s handling of the outages and called it a “sadistic regime”.

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