An individual robbed a surgeon and his staff at gunpoint during a procedure being performed in the operating theater of a hospital in the central Venezuelan city of Maracay, making off with watches, cell phones and money, officials at the institution said.

The robber, pretending to be a patient, broke into the operating theater Thursday at Red Cross headquarters in Aragua, the head of the institution in that state, Juan Mario Gualano, told Efe.