A pregnant woman was shot dead near Caracas and a soldier was killed in the western state of Merida, officials said, as the death toll from weeks of anti-government protests in Venezuela rose to 36 yesterday.

Supporters of both sides and members of the security forces are among those killed in the nation’s worst unrest in a decade, due to demonstrations against socialist President Nicolas Maduro that kicked off last month.

Francisco Garces, mayor of Guaicaipuro municipality near the capital and a member of the ruling Socialist Party, said the 28-year-old pregnant woman was shot dead on Sunday during a protest.

“We categorically reject the demonstrations that caused this death,” Garces told reporters.

The state prosecutor’s office said the woman was shot after getting off a public bus halted by a barricade set up by protesters.

She was shot after getting off a public bus

In the western state of Merida, a senior military source and hospital officials said a National Guard sergeant died yesterday after being shot in the neck during clashes there.

Streets barriers have become flashpoints for violence between radical supporters of both sides, who sometimes carry firearms. Members of the security forces have also come under fire from nearby buildings as they try to dismantle them. Merida and neighbouring Tachira state, by the border with Colombia, have been harder hit by the violence than anywhere else since the protests began. Last week, intelligence agents arrested the Opposition mayor of San Cristobal city in Tachira and accused him of fomenting “civil rebellion.”

The protests began in February with demonstrations by university students. They intensified after three people were killed following a rally in Caracas.