'In the middle of a war zone': thousands flee as Venezuela troops and Colombia rebels clash

Nearly 5,000 refugees holed up in small Colombian town of Arauquita, having fled intense and continuing battles

Lizeth Iturrieta, a journalist in the small town of La Victoria on Venezuela's western border with Colombia, was woken by the rumble of armoured vehicles rolling past her home. Hours later the sounds of gunfire and explosions shook the walls, and she and her husband dived for cover.

Out of nowhere we were in the middle of a war zone," Iturrieta said in a video call from a refugee camp on the Colombian side of the frontier. After a day of hiding at home in absolute silence, we ran for our lives to the boat to Colombia. We almost fell into the river in the panic."