A Venezuelan man placed home-made pipe-bombs outside the U.S. Embassy in Caracas on Monday but was quickly detained before he could detonate the explosives, police said.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which closed down a road
for hours outside the heavily fortified embassy until police blew up the bombs in a controlled explosion.

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The police suspect he planned to place more explosives at the Israeli Embassy, said an investigative officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to give details of the case.

The man's motives remained unclear but local media reported he was a student whose goal was to get publicity rather than hurt anybody.

A driver of a motorcycle-taxi, who had been ferrying the
man around Caracas, realized his passenger appeared to have planted the bombs and warned people by the U.S. Embassy, police said.

When local security forces gave chase, the man put a second package of explosives by a school and was then arrested, according to the police.

Venezuelan-U.S. relations have deteriorated since Chavez
came to power in 1999 and the leftist has become a well-known anti-U.S. voice around the world.