A shocking video showing a starving Venezuelan mob beating a cow to death with stones has gone viral amid violent protests that have left four people dead.

Dozens of men shout ‘we are hungry’ and ‘people are suffering’ as they surround the cow in the field, throwing stones at it and beating it with a stick.

The helpless animal was slaughtered at the Hacienda Miraflores, in the fishing village of Palmarito in Merida, during a day deadly of civil unrest and looting in the state.

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The helpless animal was slaughtered at the Hacienda Miraflores, in the fishing village of Palmarito in Merida, during a day of civil unrest and looting in the state. Pictured: The mob chasing it down

When the animal finally falls to the ground in the footage, more villagers gather around – presumably to begin the distribution of its meat.

According to local media, dozens of cows were killed by the crowds at several different ranches.

‘They’re hunting. The people are hungry!’ says the narrator of the video, who filmed the incident from his car.

Opposition congressman Carlos Paparoni posted the footage on social media to show the desperation that many Venezuelans are experiencing in the face of scarcity and controversial policies introduced by President Nicolas Maduro.

‘This is not the way. These actions will destroy our national production more quickly and bring more hunger and scarcity,’ said Paparoni.

He said about 300 animals were believed to have been killed in the area.

Calm soon returned to the troubled areas, which were rocked by the scenes of looting in recent days, but not before four people died and 10 injured.

‘People went down to a centre which stored food and gas bottles and caused damage and stole flour, rice, oil and gas,’ said Zuley Urdaneta, a veterinarian and farmer from the village of Tucani, who also said that a government supermarket was looted.

Urdaneta, 50, also witnessed the looting of a truck along the highway around 2 pm on Thursday afternoon. About two hours later, he said some 800 people converged on a food collection center and proceeded to plunder it.

‘They knocked down the gates and looted flour, rice, cooking oil, cooking gas,’ said Urdaneta. ‘The police and the National Guard tried to control the situation by giving out what was left.’

Four years of recession and the world’s highest inflation have plunged millions of Venezuelans into poverty, and President Maduro’s authoritarian socialist regime faces mounting unrest.

Looting has been increasing in the provinces since Christmas, with food shortages and hyperinflation leaving millions of people hungry, though the capital, Caracas, has so far been largely unaffected.

The opposition says Maduro’s failed economic policies and rampant corruption are to blame for the meltdown in the once booming country home to the world’s largest crude reserves.

‘What we’re living is barbaric,’ said opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido in a tweet referencing the slaughter the cattle. ‘The dehumanizing regime of Nicolas Maduro is turning a blind eye to the tragedy that we Venezuelans are living.’

Maduro’s government accuses political opponents and business-friendly foreign powers of trying to foment a social uprising against him by stoking inflation and hoarding food.

In what they said was an attempt to combat ‘speculation’. authorities last week forced over 200 supermarkets to slash prices, creating chaos as desperate Venezuelans leapt at the chance to buy cheaper food.

Some supermarkets were sold out of fruit and vegetables, and staff were unsure if the shelves would be replenished.